Nikolay Gryazin

Nikolay Stanislavovich Gryazin (Russian: Николай Станиславович Грязин, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈɫaɪ̯ stənʲɪˈsɫavəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈɡrʲæzʲɪn]; born 7 October 1997) is a Russian-Bulgarian^[2] rally driver currently competing under a Bulgarian License. He is the son of former rally driver Stanislav Gryazin and the younger brother of rally driver Vasiliy Gryazin.

Nikolay Gryazin

Nikolay Gryazin in 2018
Personal information
Nationality	Russian[a] (2019–2020)  Russian Automobile Federation[b] (2021–2022) FIA (2022–2023)[c] Bulgaria (2024–present)[d]
Born	(1997-10-07) 7 October 1997 (age 27) Moscow, Russia
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2019–present
Co-driver	/// Konstantin Aleksandrov
Teams	Hyundai, Movisport, Toksport, DG Sport Compétition
Rallies	58
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	0
Total points	47
First rally	2019 Rally Sweden

Gryazin has four overall victories in the European Rally Championship, and he finished second in the 2018 European Rally Championship, winning the ERC Junior U28 title. In 2019, he made his debut in the World Rally Championship, achieving his first WRC-2 class victory in the 2019 Rally Finland.

He currently competes for Citroen Racing, in the World Rally Championship, driving a Citroen C3 Rally2 in the World Rally Championship-2, the premier support category of the World Rally Championship. His current co-driver is fellow Russian Konstantin Aleksandrov.

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.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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[e]	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 12	CRO Ret	POR 10	ITA Ret	KEN	EST Ret	BEL 59		FIN 36					30th	2
		Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II									GRE 13
		Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo											ESP 10	MNZ 13
2022	Toksport WRT 2	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	MON 10	SWE Ret	CRO 10	POR 28	ITA 8	KEN	EST WD	FIN Ret	BEL 8	GRE 10	NZL	ESP 13	JPN		18th	11
2023	Toksport WRT 2	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	MON 10	SWE 11	MEX Ret	CRO 9	POR 30	ITA 34	KEN	EST	FIN 9	GRE 47	CHL 10	EUR 16	JPN 8		19th	10
2024	AEC – DG Sport Compétition	Citroën C3 Rally2	MON 10	SWE 19	KEN	CRO 8	POR 7	ITA 33	POL 14	LAT 14	FIN 9	GRE 48	CHL 9	EUR 6	JPN 7		14th	24
2025	Nikolay Gryazin	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	MON 9	SWE	KEN	ESP 10	POR 46	ITA 8	GRE Ret	EST Ret	FIN 14	PAR	CHL	EUR	JPN	SAU	15th*	7*

* 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[e]	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
2021	Movisport	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	MON	ARC 3	CRO Ret	POR 4	ITA	KEN	EST Ret	BEL 2		FIN 6	ESP	MNZ			6th	77
		Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II									GRE 3
2022	Toksport WRT 2	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	MON 3	SWE Ret	CRO 4	POR	ITA 1	KEN	EST WD	FIN Ret	BEL	GRE 2	NZL	ESP 3	JPN		5th	85
2023	Toksport WRT 2	Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo	MON 2	SWE	MEX	CRO 2	POR	ITA 21	KEN	EST	FIN 3	GRE	CHL 5	EUR 6	JPN 2		4th	96
2024	AEC – DG Sport Compétition	Citroën C3 Rally2	MON 3	SWE	KEN	CRO 1	POR	ITA	POL 6	LAT	FIN	GRE 21	CHL 2	EUR 1	JPN 1		3rd	116
2025	Nikolay Gryazin	Škoda Fabia RS Rally2	MON	SWE	KEN	ESP 3	POR	ITA	GRE	EST Ret	FIN	PAR	CHL	EUR	JPN	SAU	22nd*	15*

* 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						34th	1
2021	Movisport	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	POL Ret	LAT 1	ITA 21	CZE	PRT1	PRT2	HUN 22	ESP			9th	44

Notes

1. He occasionally competed under a Latvian licence.
2. Nikolay Gryazin competed as a neutral competitor hiding his Russian flag using the designation RAF (Russian Automobile Federation), as the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a ban on Russia competing at World Championships. The ban was implemented by the World Anti-Doping Agency in response to state-sponsored doping program of Russian athletes.
3. Nikolay Gryazin competed as a neutral competitor using the FIA flag as Russian national emblems were banned by the association due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1]
4. In 2024, Gryazin switched to Bulgarian licence after obtaining Bulgarian citizenship.
5. Entry run by Sports Racing Technologies.