The 2010 Rally Bulgaria was the seventh round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 9–11, and was based in Borovets, around 70 km (43 mi) outside the capital city, Sofia. The rally was also the third round of the Junior World Rally Championship.

Rally Bulgaria made its début in the World Rally Championship, having been approved to the calendar in September 2009. The event was won by Sébastien Loeb, who took his fourth win of the season, and the 58th of his WRC career. Loeb was part of a 1-2-3-4 by Citroën cars, as team-mate Dani Sordo finished second, Petter Solberg finished third in his privately-run car and Sébastien Ogier was fourth in a car run by the Citroën Junior Team; the first such result by any manufacturer since 1993.

Rally Bulgaria is the most prestigious and the oldest rally event in Bulgaria. It is a confirmed event for the 2010 World Rally Championship season, as the seventh of the thirteen planned events. 2010 will be the first time that Rally Bulgaria have been in a World Rally Championship season, having previously hosted races for the European Rally Championship. The application was accepted by the FIA despite the fact that Rally Bulgaria's candidate rally in July 2009 ended in an accident which killed Italian co-driver Flavio Guglielmini and seriously injured Swiss driver Brian Lavio. Bulgaria was the only new candidate for the 2010 World Rally Championship season, although Rally Argentina had made a reserve application just in case Bulgaria's application failed.

The route is near the resort and also HQ of the rally Borovetz ski resort.

Through the years, Bulgarians have always been interested in the motorsport in one way or another. For the first Bulgarian Motorsport event is considered the 1914 race held around the capital Sofia, which has been won by the Bulgarian Dimitar Pehlivanov. Many years of various motorsport events follow after this first try, and every time the races grew bigger and more complicated than the previous ones.

Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.75°N 25.5°E / 42.75; 25.5

Bulgaria ⁱ/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and the Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country. Its location has made it a historical crossroad for various civilisations and as such it is the home of some of the earliest metalworking, religious and other cultural artifacts in the world.

Prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history was marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the First Bulgarian Empire, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognised in 1908. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both World Wars. In 1946 it became a Communist republic with a single-party system until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. After 1990 Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and a market-based economy.

Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkimi ˈmɑtiɑs ˈræikːønen]; born 17 October 1979 in Espoo) is a Finnish racing driver. He drives in Formula One for Lotus in 2012. After nine seasons racing in Formula One, in which he took the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Championship, he competed in the World Rally Championship from 2010–2011.

Räikkönen entered Formula One as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in 2001. Having previously only raced in very junior open-wheel categories, he was given his Super Licence from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after a performance delivery promise by his team boss, Peter Sauber. He joined McLaren Mercedes in 2002, and became a title contender by finishing runner-up in the 2003 and 2005 championships to Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, respectively. Räikkönen's 2003 and 2005 seasons were plagued by severe unreliability from his McLaren cars.

Räikkönen switched to Ferrari in 2007, becoming the highest paid driver in motor sport with an estimated wage of $51 million per year. In turn his move to Ferrari saw him secure his first Formula One World Drivers' Championship, beating McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by one point, as well as becoming one of the very few drivers to win in their first season at Ferrari. In 2008, he equalled the record for fastest laps in a season for the second time. After one more year in the sport, he left the Ferrari F1 team to drive a Citroën C4 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team in the World Rally Championship for 2010. Along with rallying, Räikkönen has turned his attention towards NASCAR, and made his debut for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born May 2, 1983 in Torrelavega, Cantabria) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for the Mini WRC Team. He has yet to claim his maiden victory in the WRC despite having raced in one of the best teams for four years.

Sordo began in motocross when he was 12 years old, but also experienced success with hillclimbing, karting and touring cars. He first drove in a World Rally Championship event at the Rally Catalunya, the Spanish round of the series, in 2003 in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, finishing 18th overall. He won the Spanish Junior Championship that year, and retained the title in 2004, while also accumulating further international experience at the WRC events in Argentina (retired), France (13th) and Spain (20th).

In this last event, he switched from the Lancer Evo to a Citroën C2 S1600, and for 2005 he committed to a full season driving the C2 in the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) with Belgium's Kronos Racing team. He also switched co-drivers, now being paired with Marc Martí, the former co-driver of double World Champion Carlos Sainz. Victories in Sardinia, Finland, Germany and Spain brought him the junior world title.