🇳🇴 Andreas Mikkelsen

A Norwegian whose career divides neatly into two halves: the works driver who was going to be a champion, and the man who had to prove it twice over from the division below.

He arrived from an unusual direction, having represented Norway at junior level in both alpine skiing and motocross before taking up rallying at seventeen on a British licence. Back-to-back Intercontinental Rally Challenge titles in 2011 and 2012 bought him a Volkswagen seat, and four seasons there produced three victories — the first in Catalunya in 2015, the last and best in Australia the following year, where he beat Sébastien Ogier on merit rather than circumstance.

Then it stopped twice. Volkswagen left the championship after 2016; Hyundai released him after 2019. Both times he went back to Rally2 and won, taking the WRC2 title in 2021 alongside the European Rally Championship in the same season, and a second WRC2 crown in 2023 that came down to a countback on wins. That record earned a Rally1 return with Hyundai in 2024.

Škoda is the marque he has driven most, across three separate spells — a useful thing to know about a driver whose reputation is for making ordinary equipment look quick.