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The 1987 World Rally Championship season was the 15th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) World Rally Championship (WRC). The season consisted of 13 rallies in the same venues of the previous season. The only alteration to the schedule was the move of the Olympus Rally from December to June on the calendar.

1987 marked the beginning of a new era for the WRC, as it was the first season driven without the powerful and popular Group B rally cars, seeing the Group A cars come to the forefront of the world stage and the institution of championships not only for manufacturers and drivers, but also drivers of production and two-wheel drive cars. Group A would remain at the forefront of the championship to this day. The FIA also changed the basic scoring rules for manufacturers although they retained the policy of having two rallies not count toward manufacturers totals. New Zealand and the Ivory Coast were selected in 1987 to count solely for drivers' titles.

Martini Lancia proved most successful in adjusting to the new lower-powered cars, adopting the Lancia Delta HF 4WD, driven by Finn Juha Kankkunen and Markku Alén as well as Italian Miki Biasion. Between the three, Lancia would gather nine rally wins over the thirteen race season, dominating the manufacturers' race for the championship. Meanwhile, the three drivers split success between them, placing closely in the top three places for the drivers' title by the end of the season.

Audi Sport retained both Hannu Mikkola and Walter Röhrl, although they could not duplicate the success of their Group B seasons, both placing well down in the drivers' title competition. Audi however did gain some points from others team running the Quattro. Clarion Team Europe with driver Per Eklund contributed 26 points to the work's effort while Mig Linz's entry, Georg Fischer added another eight, bolstering Audi's bid for second overall.

The Philips Renault Elf team struggled through the season with the Group A Renault 11 Turbo. French drivers Jean Ragnotti and Francois Chatriot were unable to gain much success, with the highlight of their season coming at Portugal with Ragnotti's second-place finish.

Volkswagen Motorsport followed their success of the previous season with Swede Kenneth Eriksson, the 1986 winner of the championship for drivers of Group A cars. Eriksson was able to place fourth overall on the season--beaten only by Lancia drivers--but Volkswagen, lacking a major second driver, was surpassed by not only Lancia, but Audi and Renault as well in the manufacturer standings.

Ford Motor Company made its return to serious competition by enlisting drivers Ari Vatanen and Stig Blomqvist, but struggled early on with the Sierra XR 4x4. The car was dropped, its replacement on the works team coming in the end of the season in the form of the redesigned Sierra RS Cosworth, which met with much greater success, challenging the dominant Lancias in the final three events of the season.

Contents 1 Events 2 Championship for manufacturers 3 Championship for drivers 4 See also

[edit] Events

1987 World Rally Championship event map

Black = Tarmac	Brown = Gravel	Blue = Snow/Ice	Red = Mixed Surface

1987 World Rally Championship schedule and results

Round	Rally name	Stages	Podium finishers
			Rank	Driver	Co-driver	Car	Time
1	55ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo (January 17–January 22)	26 stages 571 km Tarmac	1	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta HF	7:39.50
			2	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF	7:40.49
			3	Walter Röhrl	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi 200 Quattro	7:44.00
2	37th International Swedish Rally (February 13–February 14)	26 stages 400 km Snow/Ice	1	Timo Salonen	Seppo Harjanne	Mazda 323	4:11.00
			2	Mikael Ericsson	Claes Billstam	Lancia Delta HF	4:11.23
			3	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF	4:12.46
3	20º Rallye de Portugal Vinho do Porto (March 11–March 14)	37 stages 597 km Gravel/Tarmac	1	Markku Alén	Ilkka Kivimäki	Lancia Delta HF	7:50.44
			2	Jean Ragnotti	Pierre Thimonier	Renault 11 Turbo	7:12.32
			3	Kenneth Eriksson	Peter Diekmann	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V	7:14.37
4	34th Marlboro Safari Rally (April 16–April 20)	83 controls 4011 km Gravel	1	Hannu Mikkola	Arne Hertz	Audi 200 Quatrro	3:39.44
			2	Walter Röhrl	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi 200 Quatrro	3:56.59
			3	Lars-Erik Torph	Benny Melander	Toyota Supra	4:31.09
5	31ème Tour de Corse - Rallye de France (May 7–May 9)	24 stages 619 km Tarmac	1	Bernard Béguin	Jean-Jacques Lenne	BMW M3	7:22.30
			2	Yves Loubet	Jean-Bernard Vieu	Lancia Delta HF	7:24.38
			3	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta HF	7:24.58
6	34rd Acropolis Rally (May 31–3)	33 stages 538 km Gravel	1	Markku Alén	Ilkka Kivimäki	Lancia Delta HF	7:25.57
			2	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF	7:26.45
			3	Hannu Mikkola	Arne Hertz	Audi 200 Quattro	7:31.21
7	22nd Olympus Rally (June 26–June 29)	42 stages 540 km Gravel	1	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF	5:59.24
			2	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta HF	5:59.36
			3	Markku Alén	Ilkka Kivimäki	Lancia Delta HF	6:00.06
8	17th AWA Clarion Rally New Zealand[1] (July 11–July 14)	36 stages 593 km Gravel	1	Franz Wittmann (rally driver)	Jörg Pattermann	Lancia Delta HF	6:56.00
			2	Kenneth Eriksson	Peter Diekmann	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V	6:56.47
			3	Possum Bourne	Michael Eggleton	Subaru Leone 1800 RX	7:04.25
9	7º Marlboro Rally Argentina (August 4–August 8)	26 stages 596 km Gravel	1	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta HF	7:10.27
			2	Jorge Recalde	Jorge del Buono	Lancia Delta HF	7:11.28
			3	Erwin Weber	Matthias Feltz	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V	7:37.11
10	37th 1000 Lakes Rally (August 27–August 30)	52 stages 494 km Gravel	1	Markku Alén	Ilkka Kivimäki	Lancia Delta HF	5:12.22
			2	Ari Vatanen	Terry Harryman	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	5:17.54
			3	Stig Blomqvist	Bruno Berglund	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	5:18.51
11	19ème Rallye Côte d'Ivoire[1] (September 22–September 26)	29 controls 3831 km Gravel	1	Kenneth Eriksson	Peter Diekmann	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V	+48.57 pen
			2	Shekhar Mehta	Rob Combes	Nissan 200sx	+1:09.18 pen
			3	Erwin Weber	Matthias Feltz	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V	+2:05.56 pen
12	29º Rallye Sanremo (October 12–October 15)	38 stages 529 km Gravel/Tarmac	1	Miki Biasion	Tiziano Siviero	Lancia Delta HF	6:09.19
			2	Bruno Saby	Jean-François Fauchille	Lancia Delta HF	6:14.30
			3	Jean Ragnotti	Pierre Thimonier	Renault 11 Turbo	6:16.55
13	36th Lombard RAC Rally (November 22–November 25)	47 stages 539 km Gravel/Tarmac	1	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Piironen	Lancia Delta HF	5:26.36
			2	Stig Blomqvist	Bruno Berglund	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	5:29.48
			3	Jimmy McRae	Ian Grindrod	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	5:33.15