The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 is a rally car built by Volkswagen Motorsport and based upon the Volkswagen Polo road car. It is built to R5 regulations and is a successor to the Volkswagen Polo R WRC. The Polo GTI R5 made its competitive début at the 2018 Rally Catalunya, where it was driven by 2003 World Drivers' Champion Petter Solberg and Eric Camilli. The car currently competes in the World Rally Championship-2 where it is entered by various privateers.
History
After four years of extremely dominant success in the outright category of the WRC with the Volkswagen Polo R WRC, in 2016 Volkswagen Motorsport began development of a new Polo WRC for the 2017-specification regulations. Despite extensive testing undertaken with the car, in November 2016 Volkswagen announced they would cancel development of the new Polo, along with a withdrawal from the World Rally Championship. In April of 2017, however, Volkswagen announced intentions to remain in the sport, with plans to develop the new Volkswagen Polo GTI for the R5 class, to be used mostly in the hands of privateer drivers in the World Rally Championship-2.
The R5 Polo was developed in collaboration with Skoda, one of Volkswagen's subsidiaries, who also had an R5 car of their own, based on the Skoda Fabia. In December of 2017, Volkswagen officially unveiled the R5-specification Volkswagen Polo GTI. The car's engine developed 272 brake horsepower from 1.6 litres. Volkswagen's plans were to have the first completed model passing international homologation by the summer of 2018, and begin delivery to customers soon afterwards.
Shortly afterwards, Volkswagen confirmed fifteen cars had been ordered by various European and South American customers. Austrian rally team BRR Baumschlager Rallye & Racing had purchased three of them, with other cars going to other high-end teams such as Printsport and Kristoffersson Motorsport.
Results World Rally Championship-2 victories No. Event Year Driver Co-driver 1 2019 Rally Sweden 2019 Ole Christian Veiby Jonas Andersson 2 2019 Wales Rally GB 2019 Petter Solberg Phil Mills 3 2021 Arctic Rally 2021 Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm 4 2021 Rally de Portugal 2021 Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm 5 2021 Rally Finland 2021 Teemu Suninen Mikko Markkula
World Rally Championship-3 victories No. Event Year Driver Co-driver 1 2020 Rally Estonia 2020 Oliver Solberg Aaron Johnston 2 2021 Safari Rally 2021 Onkar Rai Drew Sturrock
European Rally Championship victories No. Event Year Driver Co-driver 1 2019 Rally Liepāja 2019 Oliver Solberg Aaron Johnston 2 2019 Cyprus Rally Nasser Al-Attiyah Mathieu Baumel 3 2020 Rally Liepāja 2020 Oliver Solberg Aaron Johnston 4 2021 Rally Liepāja 2021 Nikolay Gryazin Konstantin Aleksandrov 5 35.º Rally Serras de Fafe - Felgueiras - Cabreira e Boticas 2022 Nil Solans Marc Martí 6 46.º Rally Islas Canarias Nil Solans Marc Martí 7 1. BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia 2023 Oliver Solberg Elliott Edmondson
References
See also Volkswagen Polo R WRC Group R Citroën C3 R5 Ford Fiesta R5 Hyundai i20 R5 Škoda Fabia R5