The new 2012 World Rally Ranking, after 9 months of rallying and before the Rallye de France

The world rally ranking of the IRDA (International Rally Drivers Association) is a classification system for rally drivers and co-drivers, produced weekly by the IRDA to enable objective comparisons between the various drivers and co-drivers of the world who race in the various leagues and trophies, at world, continental and national level. The ranking, which is the only one dedicated exclusively to rallyes worldwide, is established
through a system of coefficients assigned to each rally, based on its importance and validity. From these factors, scores are obtained and are given to the first thirty classified crews of each rally in the 2012 FIA "International Sporting Calendar – Rallyes" which currently has 134 scheduled rallyes run or to be run on the 5 continents. Under the system currently in use, the scores are calculated on the results achieved by drivers and co-drivers in the last 12 months of racing, this system has been adopted to respond to the criticism according to which, over longer periods of time, the ranking would not have accurately reflected the actual and current value of drivers and co-drivers. There are currently 1062 drivers of 72 different nations who have obtained the results necessary to enter the ranking, the top ten are:
1) LOEB Sebastien - France - 5905
2) MIKKELSEN Andreas - Norway - 5674
3) HANNINEN Juho - Finland - 5265
4) HIRVONEN Mikko - Finland -5175
5) OSTBERG Mads - Norway - 4830
6) KOPECKY Jan - Czech Republic - 4476
7) LATVALA Jari-Matti - Finland - 4455
8) SOLBERG Petter - Norway - 4110
9) NEUVILLE Thierry - Belgium - 3423
10) NOVIKOV Evgeny - Russia - 3345

The best drivers for each continent are:
LOEB Sebastian (France) - Europe - 5905
AL ATTIYAH Nasser (Qatar) - Middle East - 2918
ATKINSON Chris (Australia) - Oceania - 2191
TRIVINO Ricardo (Mexico) - North and Central America - 2122
ARAI Toshihiro (Japan) - Asia - 1482
FUCHS Nicolas (Perù) - South America - 1205
ESSA Mohamed (Zambia) - Africa - 976