Nikolay Gryazin

Nikolay Gryazin

Nikolay Gryazin in 2018
Personal information
Nationality	Russian
Born	(1997-10-07) 7 October 1997
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2019–present
Co-driver	Yaroslav Fedorov
Teams	Sports Racing Technologies, Hyundai
Rallies	14
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	0
Total points	7
First rally	2019 Rally Sweden

Nikolay Gryazin (born 7 October, 1997) is a Russian rally driver. He currently competes in the World Rally Championship-2, the premier support category of the World Rally Championship, for Latvian Rally Team Sports Racing Technologies. He is the son of Russian rally driver Stanislav Gryazin.

Background

A Russian driver with Latvian background, since the beginning of his rallying career, he has been a member of the junior rally program of Sports Racing Technologies.

Career

Early years

With their backing, he first rose to prominence in 2016, in the junior classes of the European Rally Championship, running a full-time campaign in the ERC-3 class with an R2-spec Peugeot 208. From the start he showed speed, but lacked enough consistency. After four rallies in which he failed to finish, he scored a class win at the Polish round in Rzeszowski and a podium at the Czech Rally Zlín. He finished the season placed 4th in the ERC-3 standings. He would also place 6th in the Latvian junior championship that year.

2017-2018: ERC & Latvia

In 2017, Gryazin would make the step-up to four-wheel drive machinery, as he would be using the Škoda Fabia R5 for a full-time outright campaign on the European and Latvian Rally Championships, along with select regional rallies across Europe. Gryazin struggled to take off in the European Championship, only managing a best finish of 5th at the Rallye Açores, until he fought Kalle Rovanperä to take an overall win at the season-ending Rally Liepaja, the Latvian round of the ERC. He finished the ERC season 7th place, and came second in the Under-28 trophy. Back in Latvia, he managed an impressive three victories and finished runner-up in the championship. Gryazin coupled these programs with podium finishes and victories in regional rallies at Estonia, Slovenia, and Finland.

Nikolay Gryazin competing at the 2018 Rally Poland.

The year of 2018 marked a breakout year for the young Russian. In addition to continued full-season efforts in the ERC and Latvia with the Fabia, Gryazin would also tackle the Finnish championship as well. This season would prove to be very successful for Gryazin, as he would take two overall victories in the ERC, one in Poland with a hard battle between himself and Jari Huttunen, and at Rally Liepaja for the second consecutive year. These victories were obtained on the way to a runner-up finish in the 2018 ERC standings, winning the Under-28 trophy as well. Gryazin finished 3rd in the Latvian championship with three victories, as well as taking home 4th in the Finnish Championship with one win. He took additional podiums and victories in regional rallies at Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Sweden, and Norway.

2019-present: World Rally Championship-2

After a big breakthrough year in 2018, it was announced that Nikolay Gryazin and Sports Racing Technologies would make the step up to a full-season campaign in the World Rally Championship-2 in 2019, which would mark his first starts in the World Rally Championship. After two victories in warm-up rallies in Norway, Gryazin made his WRC debut at Rally Sweden, and he would finish 15th overall, and 5th in the WRC-2 class. In his next round at Corsica, he finished 12th overall, and took a 2nd place WRC-2 finish, capitalizing on the attrition of the regular favorites. The rest of his 2019 season campaign is scheduled to be the remaining non-fly away events.

Rally results

Complete WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
2019	Nikolay Gryazin	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE 15	MEX	FRA 12	ARG	CHL	POR 13	ITA Ret	FIN 10	GER 20	TUR WD				24th	1
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo												GBR 13	ESP 23	AUS C
2020	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai i20 R5	MON 16	SWE 21	MEX 7	EST 19	TUR	ITA Ret	MNZ								18th	6
2021	Movisport	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	MON 12	ARC	CRO	POR	ITA	SAF	EST	FIN	BEL	CHL	ESP	JPN			NC*	0*

* Season still in progress.

Complete WRC-2 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points
2019	Nikolay Gryazin	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE 5	MEX	FRA 2	ARG	CHL	POR 5	ITA Ret	FIN 1	GER 5	TUR WD	GBR			4th	73
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo													ESP 11	AUS C
2020	Hyundai Motorsport N	Hyundai i20 R5	MON 3	SWE 6	MEX 2	EST 5	TUR	ITA Ret	MNZ								5th	51

* Season still in progress.

Complete European Rally Championship Results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	ERC	Points
2015	Sports Racing Technologies	Škoda Fabia R5	JAN	LVA	IRL	ACO	YPR	EST	CZE	CYP	GRC	VAL 6	34th	10
2016	Sports Racing Technologies	Peugeot 208 R2	ESP	IRL 20	GRC	ACO Ret	YPR Ret	EST Ret	POL 13	CZE 29	LVA 27		NC	0
		Škoda Fabia R5										CYP Ret
2017	Sports Racing Technologies	Škoda Fabia R5	ACO 5	ESP 12	GRC Ret	CYP 33	POL Ret	CZE 14	ROM 8	LVA 1			7th	59
2018	Sports Racing Technologies	Škoda Fabia R5	ACO	ESP 2	GRC	CYP	ROM 27	CZE 5	POL 1	LVA 1			2nd	129
2019	Sports Racing Technologies	Škoda Fabia R5	AZO	CAN	LIE	POL	RMC Ret	CZE Ret	CYP	HUN			NC	0
2020	Nikolay Gryazin	Hyundai i20 R5	ITA	LAT 20	PRT	HUN	ESP	BEL					20th*	1*

External links

• Nikolay Gryazin eWRC driver profile
• Nikolay Gryazin's Facebook page
• Nikolay Gryazin's Twitter page