Ole Christian Veiby is one of the great talents of the World Rally Championship today. Despite his youth, at only 24 years old, the Norwegian has many years of experience, since 2012. In 2015 he already competed in the JWRC.
Veiby has competed with various brands in the World Championship, immersed in the WRC2 category. In 2017 he finished fifth with Skoda. A year later he repeated his feat with the Czech brand, finishing seventh in the final overall. In 2019, with Volkswagen, he qualified sixth, but won the Norwegian Rally Championship.
Andrea Adamo and Hyundai had their eye on Veiby, closing a deal to race a Hyundai i20 R5 last season. Thanks to his consistency, despite the mishaps in Monte Carlo and Estonia, he finished fourth in WRC2. This year he repeats feat with a similar car.
Veiby and his experienced co-driver Jonas Andersson have only competed in the Arctic Lapland Rally within the World Championship, in which they finished fifth among the WRC2s. His next stop will be Portugal, and the Norwegian arrives with more confidence than ever after his victory at Rali Terras d’Aboboreira, an appointment that served as preparation.
His second chance with a WRC
Ole Christian Veiby had the opportunity to ride a Hyunai i20 Coupé WRC 2C Competition at the last Rally Monza, scoring for the WRC. The difficult conditions of the rally were difficult with a car of the highest category. His rally ended in an accident on the same zone as Gus Greensmith.
This weekend came another one of those great occasions. The Norwegian participated in the Rally Targa Florio (Talia) with the same 2C Competition unit. Thierry Neuville was the other driver of the brand who also competed. After the ten special stages, the sensations were remarkable.
The final distance between the Belgian and the Norwegian stayed in 42 seconds, with scratch included for Veiby in the third special, and even a draw in some of them. The 24-year-old finished the rallie running half a second per kilometer slower than Neuville, a great record considering the kilometers he spent in the car.
These were his statements at the end of the rally:
It was amazing to be back in the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC again! Enjoyed every minute, and it was especially inspiring to see that we were close to Thierry’s pace on the asphalt stages. We had no testing prior to the rally, but still we managed to get the feeling with the car and the pace quite quickly.
