User:Ivaneurope/2017 WRC Trophy

The 2017 World Rally Championship-3 is the fifth season of the World Rally Championship-3, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, running in support of the World Rally Championship. It was created when the Group R class of rally car was introduced in 2013. Simone Tempestini did not return to defend the 2016 title as he competes in the 2017 World Rally Championship-2.

Season calendar
The season is being contested over thirteen rounds in Europe, North and South America and Australia.

Calendar changes
The FIA re-organised the calendar for the 2017 season to include a greater variation in surfaces between events, bringing the Tour de Corse forward from October to April. The decision was made after concerns were expressed about the 2016 calendar, which originally contained six consecutive gravel events followed by four tarmac rallies.

The Rally of China was removed from the calendar. The event had been included on the 2016 calendar before storm damage to the proposed route forced its cancellation. The round was removed from the 2017 calendar to give event organisers more time to prepare for a future bid to rejoin the calendar. Similarly, the FIA put the Rallies of Argentina and Poland on notice regarding safety concerns, threatening to rescind their World Championship status for the 2017 season unless safety standards were improved in 2016,  with drivers citing a lack of safety marshalls and expressing concerns over spectators getting too close to the cars as the main areas to be addressed. Both events were subsequently included on the calendar.

The Rally of Sweden was the only event to change its headquarters, staying within Värmland County but relocating from Karlstad to Torsby.

Route changes
The Rallye Monte-Carlo introduced a heavily revised itinerary, with eighty-five percent of the route used in 2016 being revised for the 2017 event, which saw the competitive distance increase from 337.59 km to 382.65 km and included the Col de Turini as part of the Power Stage. Rally Sweden adjusted its route to remove the emphasis on purpose-built stages that had filled out the event itinerary in previous years. The new route raised the average speed of the rally and introduced more competitive mileage in Hedmark County in neighbouring Norway.

Rally Mexico also featured route revisions, with the eighty-kilometre Guanajuato stage&mdash;the longest in the championship in 2016&mdash;removed from the schedule; however, the addition of new stages and further changes to existing ones meant that the overall competitive distance of the 2017 rally was only six kilometres shorter than the route used in the 2016 event. The rally is scheduled to start in Mexico City with a spectator-friendly stage before moving to its traditional headquarters in León. The Tour de Corse shortened its route by seventy-four kilometres, from 390.92 km in 2016 down to 316.76 km in 2017, with most of the changes coming from shortening each of the individual stages used in 2016.

Season report
The season started with the Rallye Monte Carlo. In the category, there were six entries, including four by Renault Sport. The rally was won from start to end by Raphaël Astier, winning by more than nine minutes over the rest of the crews. The podium was completed by Renault's Luca Panzani and Charles Martin.

Louise Cook was the sole entrant for Rally Sweden in the category. She had to retire after losing the bumper of her car before the Colin's Crest jump during the second pass over the Vargåsen stage. She was able to re-assemble the car, but an homologation problem in the spare seat brackets, made her unable to start the final leg of the rally, leaving the category with no winner.

After there where no entries in Rally Mexico, the action continued Tour de Corse, which also featured the first round of the Junior championship. Raphaël Astier lead the event from start to finish, winning the event by almoust a minute and a half from Junior entrant Nil Solans. The podium was completed by local Nicolas Ciamin, who claimed to that position after a driveshaft problem prevented fellow frenchman Terry Folb the means to finish in the podium.

FIA World Rally Championship-3 for Drivers
Points are awarded to the top ten classified finishers.