Marcus Grönholm won his second drivers' world championship in a Peugeot 206 WRC, ahead of Petter Solberg and Carlos Sainz.
The 2002 championship was contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, Africa, South America and Oceania.
Rallye de Portugal was dropped from the calendar after a disastrous running of the event in 2001 due to heavy rain which was heavily criticized by drivers such as Marcus Grönholm,[3] Colin McRae[4] and Richard Burns.
[5] It was replaced by Rallye Deutschland which had an impressive candidate Rally in 2001 won by Philippe Bugalski after main rival Marcus Gronholm received a puncture and spun multiple times.
[1] FIA President Max Mosley had stated that Japan and India had been two candidates to join the World Rally Championship but neither materialized for the 2002 season.