Opel’s Electric Rally Cup Heads to Sanremo With 10-Point Title Fight
The ADAC Opel GSE Rally Cup is taking its battery-electric one-make series to Italy for the first time, with three drivers separated by only 10 points before the Sanremo round.
The fifth round of the seven-event 2026 season runs from October 16 through October 18 at the 73rd Rally Sanremo. Opel says 14 teams will compete in identical Mokka GSE Rally cars on eight asphalt special stages totaling 113 kilometers, or about 70 miles, through the narrow mountain roads behind the Italian Riviera.
Electric one-make rallying arrives in Italy
Sanremo first ran in 1928 and remained part of the World Rally Championship through 2003. Opel’s visit brings a very different type of competition to that history: the manufacturer describes the event as the first appearance of an electric rally one-make cup on Italian soil.
Each Mokka GSE Rally can deliver up to 207 kW, equivalent to 281 horsepower. Because the field uses the same basic car, the weekend should put a premium on stage preparation, tire management and driver precision rather than major differences in machinery. Opel expects comparatively low average speeds on the tight route, where small errors can be costly.
Only 10 points cover the top three
Welsh driver Ioan Lloyd and co-driver Sion Williams lead after four rounds with 111 points. Timo Schulz and Maresa Lade are seven points back on 104, while Tom Dufour and Alex Dubois sit third with 101. Schulz won three of the first four rounds but also retired at Rallye Vosges Grand-Est, which compressed the standings.
- 1. Ioan Lloyd: 111 points
- 2. Timo Schulz: 104 points
- 3. Tom Dufour: 101 points
Opel also highlights 19-year-old Italian driver Valentino Ledda as a potential podium threat on home ground. Alex Español, runner-up in the previous-generation Opel electric rally cup last season, arrives after earning his first podium of the current campaign in northern Germany.
Schedule and how to follow
The rally begins Friday, October 16 at 12:05 p.m. Central European Summer Time. The finish is scheduled for roughly 5:30 p.m. CEST on Sunday, October 18. Opel directs fans to ADAC Motorsport live timing and the Opel Motorsport Instagram channel for updates. Exact stage conditions and running order can still change with event operations.
A test of relevance, not just range
Electric rally series are useful laboratories for more than battery range. Repeated acceleration, regeneration, heat management and fast service between stages all expose the cars to duty cycles that ordinary road driving cannot match. A one-make format also makes it easier to compare how teams extract performance from the same hardware.
The Mokka GSE Rally shares Opel’s performance branding with road and concept projects, though the competition car should not be treated as a direct proxy for a showroom model. For more of the brand’s electrified performance direction, read our report on the Opel Corsa GSE and Formula E program. The latest international GT update is our BMW M4 GT3 EVO Macau lineup report.
Source and image credit
Event dates, route figures, car output and standings come from Opel’s October 13, 2026 motorsport release. Featured image is an archive rally illustration and does not depict the Opel Mokka GSE Rally. Photo by Przemek Seternus via Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License. Official event imagery is available from the linked Opel release.