The 2019 Rally Italia Sardegna (also known as Rally Italia Sardegna 2019) was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sports ...

that was held over four days between 13 and 16 June 2019. It marked the sixteenth running of

Rally Italia Sardegna The Rally Italia Sardegna (until 2010 Rally d'Italia Sardegna) is a Rallying, rally competition in Sardinia, Italy, which has been a round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) schedule and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Chara ...

and was the eighth round of the

2019 World Rally Championship The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-seventh season of the World Rally Championship, a rallying championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams ...

World Rally Championship-2 The FIA WRC2 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after Rally1 class crews. WRC2 is limited to production ...

and the newly created WRC-2 Pro class. It was also the third round of the

Junior World Rally Championship The FIA Junior WRC Championship is an international rallying series restricted to drivers under 29 years old, running within the framework of the World Rally Championship. The series is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobi ...

. The 2019 event was based in

Alghero Alghero (; ; ; ) is a city of about 45,000 inhabitants in the Italian province of Sassari in the north west of the island of Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The city's name comes from ''Aleguerium'', which is a mediaeval Latin word m ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, and was contested over nineteen special stages with a total a competitive distance of .

Thierry Neuville Thierry Jean Neuville ( ; born 16 June 1988) is a Belgian rally driver who is competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. During his career, he has finished as runner-up five times (2013, 2016–2019) and achieved his maiden ...

and

Nicolas Gilsoul Nicolas Gilsoul (born 5 February 1982) is a Belgian rally co-driver. He is the former co-driver for Thierry Neuville and the current co-driver for Pierre-Louis Loubet.

were the defending rally winners. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the defending manufacturers' winners.

Jan Kopecký Jan Kopecký (born 28 January 1982) is a professional rally driver from Czech Republic who drives for Škoda Motorsport. He is the 2013 ERC champion, 2018 WRC-2 champion as well as a multiple champion of the Czech Rally Championship. Career ...

and

Pavel Dresler Pavel ( Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian: Павел; Czech, Slovene, and (although Romanian also uses Paul); ; ; ) is a male given name. It is a Slavic cognate of the name Paul (derived from the Greek Pavlos). Pavel may refer to: People Given ...

were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but they did not defend their titles as they participated in the newly created WRC-2 Pro class.

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross whe ...

and

Carlos del Barrio Carlos del Barrio (born 15 August 1968) is a Spanish rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Dani Sordo and is competing for Hyundai in the World Rally Championship. Rally career Carlos del Barrio began his rally career in 1991, co-drivin ...

won their second career victory. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, successfully defended their titles. The

Škoda Motorsport ŠKODA Motorsport is the sports factory team of the car manufacturer Škoda Auto, currently focusing on the development and construction of racing cars. The latest model from Škoda Motorsport's workshops is the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, which was ...

crew of

Kalle Rovanperä Kalle Rovanperä (; born 1 October 2000) is a Finnish professional rally driver who competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, alongside co-driver Jonne Halttunen. He is a double World Champion, having won the 20 ...

and

Jonne Halttunen Jonne Halttunen (born 13 December 1985) is a Finnish rally (sports), rally co-driver. Currently, he is the co-driver of Kalle Rovanperä, driving the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Previously, they represented Škoda Motorsport to participate in the 20 ...

took hat-trick in the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while the French crew of

Pierre-Louis Loubet Pierre-Louis Loubet (; born 18 February 1997) is a French rally driver. He is the 2019 World Rally Championship 2 Champion. He is the son of the 1989 European Rally Champion Yves Loubet. Career Early career Loubet started karting at 7 y ...

and

Vincent Landais Vincent Landais (born 17 October 1991) is a French rally co-driver. He is the co-driver of the French rally driver Sébastien Ogier, racing for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT in the World Rally Championship. Rally career Landais and Loubet started in ...

won the wider WRC-2 class. The third round of the J-WRC championship was taken by the Rally Team Spain crew of Jan Solans and Mauro Barreiro.

Background

Championship standings prior to the event

Defending world champions

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Eugène Emile Ogier (; born 17 December 1983) is a French Rallying, rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He is currently teamed with co-driver Vincent Landais. He has won 8 List ...

and

Julien Ingrassia Julien Ingrassia (born 26 November 1979) is a retired French people, French rally (sports), rally co-driver. Working with Sébastien Ogier, he became World Rally Champion in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Volkswagen Motorsport, 2017 World Rall ...

led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a two-point ahead of

Ott Tänak Ott Tänak (; born 15 October 1987) is an Estonian rally driver and the 2019 World Rally Champion. He is currently teamed with Martin Järveoja and is competing for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship. Tänak achieved his maiden ...

and

Martin Järveoja Martin Järveoja (; born 18 August 1987) is an Estonian rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Ott Tänak and is competing for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship. Rally career He is the son of Estonian politician Toomas ...

and

Nicolas Gilsoul Nicolas Gilsoul (born 5 February 1982) is a Belgian rally co-driver. He is the former co-driver for Thierry Neuville and the current co-driver for Pierre-Louis Loubet.

were third, a further ten points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a twenty-point lead over

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team is a competitor of the World Rally Championship (WRC) based in Finland, serving as the entry for the car manufacturer Toyota. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala and its drivers for ...

. In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings,

and

held a three-point lead ahead of

Mads Østberg Mads Østberg (born 11 October 1987) is a Norway, Norwegian Rallying, rally driver. His co-driver is Torstein Eriksen. Career Østberg competed in his first rally in 2004. His first World Rally Championship event was the 2006 Swedish Rally, in ...

and

Torstein Eriksen Torstein Eriksen (born 29 April 1990) is a rallying co-driver from Norway. He is currently teamed with Andreas Mikkelsen and is competing for Toksport WRT in the World Rally Championship-2. Rally career Torstein Eriksen began his rally career i ...

in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively.

Łukasz Pieniążek Łukasz Pieniążek (born 19 September 1990) is a Polish rally driver. Currently, He drives for M-Sport Ford in the WRC-2 Pro category. Rally career Pieniążek made his WRC debut at 2016 Rally de Portugal, driving a Citroën DS3 R3T Max i ...

and

Elliott Edmondson Elliott Edmondson (born 29 August 1994) is a British rally co-driver. Currently, he is the co-driver of Oliver Solberg for Hyundai Motorsport in the World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an internat ...

were third, nine and ten points further back respectively. In the manufacturers' championship, M-Sport Ford WRT led

by thirty-one points, with

Citroën Total Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

thirty-three points further behind in third. In the World Rally Championship-2 standings,

Benito Guerra Benito Iván Guerra Latapí (born 25 March 1985) is a Mexican rally driver competing for Citroën Racing, a privateer team in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2013, with his co-driver Borja Rozada. In 2012 he won the Production Worl ...

and Jaime Zapata led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by twenty-two points respectively.

Takamoto Katsuta Takamoto Katsuta (勝田貴元, ''Katsuta Takamoto'', born 17 March 1993) is a Japanese rally driver who currently competes in the World Rally Championship for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT. Katsuta rose to prominence after taking a surprise victory ...

and Daniel Barritt were second, following by

Ole Christian Veiby Ole Christian Veiby is a professional rally driver from Norway driving for Hyundai Motorsport in the WRC-2 category of the World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned ...

and Jonas Andersson in third. In the Junior-World Rally Championship standings,

Tom Kristensson Tom Krister Kristensson (born 30 April 1991) is a Swedish rally driver, who drives in the Junior World Rally Championship. He is originally from Lund, but now lives in Hörby Hörby () is a locality and the seat of Hörby Municipality, Sk� ...

and

Henrik Appelskog Henrik is a male given name of Germanic origin, primarily used in Scandinavia, Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Slovenia. In Poland, the name is spelt Henryk but pronounced similarly. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Heiki (Estoni ...

led Jan Solans and Mauro Barreiro by thirteen points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with

Dennis Rådström Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is sometime ...

and Johan Johansson two points further behind in third in their own standings. In the Nations' standings,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

were first, thirteen points clear of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, with

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

two points further behind in third.

Entry list

The following crews entered into the rally. The event opened to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, WRC-2 Pro, Junior World Rally Championship, Italian national championship and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...

entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of ninety-four entries were received, with twelve crews entered with World Rally Cars and fifteen entered the World Rally Championship-2. Five crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class. A further eleven entries were received for the Junior World Rally Championship.

Route

The Ittiri Arena stage will be removed from the itinerary as well as some slight length-adjustments to selected stages.

Itinerary

All dates and times are CEST (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

Report

World Rally Cars

The first leg saw defending world champion

, who was the road-cleaner in

, caught out after hitting a huge rock in the morning loop. Ogier's

Citroën C3 The Citroën C3 is a supermini car ( B-segment) produced by Citroën since April 2002. It replaced the Citroën Saxo in the model line up, and is currently in its fourth generation. Initial models of the Citroën C3 were built using the same p ...

sustained serious suspension damage, forcing him and co-driver

to retire from the stage.

Teemu Suninen Teemu Suninen (; born 1 February 1994) is a Finnish rally driver. He currently competes part-time for the Hyundai team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). Rally career Suninen won the WRC-3 class in the 2014 Rally Finland and 2015 Rally ...

took an early lead until a spin handed the lead to

Jari-Matti Latvala Jari-Matti Latvala (; born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and ...

, who rolled his Yaris in the afternoon loop. Things went from bad to worse as the Finn went off the road in the final stage of the leg.

also hit trouble as his i20 slid nose-first into a ditch, with the

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

radiator A radiator is a heat exchanger used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...

being pierced in the ordeal. Eventually,

became the overnight leader. On day two, with a much better road position,

took over the rally — he dominated the day and won all six stages, turning a ten-second deficit to a twenty-five-second lead. However, his teammate

Kris Meeke Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a British professional rally driver from Northern Ireland, best known for competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His co-driver is Seb ...

had to change a punctured tyre in the final test, which dropped him down from fifth to eighth. Things went against Tänak's favour in the

power stage The Power Stage (abbreviated as PS) is a Special stage (rallying), special stage that usually runs as the final stage of a rally in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and European Rally Championship (ERC). Additional championship points are avail ...

, however, when a late

power steering Power steering is a system for reducing a driver's effort to turn a steering wheel of a motor vehicle, by using a power source to assist steering. Hydraulic or electric actuators add controlled energy to the steering mechanism, so the driver can ...

failure deprived the Estonian of a third consecutive rally win, handing the victory to Sordo; his first rally win since the

2013 Rallye Deutschland The 31st ADAC Rallye Deutschland was the ninth round of the 2013 World Rally Championship, held from 22 to 25 August, 2013. Dani Sordo emerged victorious in his first ever WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television st ...

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2 Pro

was very likely to lead the category, but he lost almost eleven minutes adrift after hitting a stone in the opening stage, which meant

became the leader.

Gus Greensmith Fergus "Gus" Greensmith (born 26 December 1996) is a British rally driver. Rally career Greensmith's family owns fuel and lubricants distributor Crown Oil. A former youth goalkeeper for Manchester City F.C. and karter before moving into th ...

retired from the day due to plunging down a bank. Although he restarted on Saturday, a

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Car suspension * Cell suspension or suspension culture, in biology * Guarded suspension, a software design pattern in concurrent programming suspending a method call and the calling ...

failure forced him to stop again. Eventually, Rovanperä won the category as well as played a hat-trick.

Classification

Special stages

Results in bold denote first in the RC2 class, the class which both the WRC-2 Pro and WRC-2 championships run to.

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2

enjoyed a troublefree day in the lead. The major retirements of the leg included Fabio Andolfi, who ripped a front wheel from his Fabia, and

due to multiple issues. On day two,

Nikolay Gryazin Nikolay Stanislavovich Gryazin ( rus, Николай Станиславович Грязин, p=nʲɪkɐˈɫaɪ̯ stənʲɪˈsɫavəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈɡrʲæzʲɪn; born 7 October 1997) is a Russian-Bulgarian rally driver currently competing under a ...

retired from second when he hit a rock and ripped off his right-front wheel. Back to the front,

surpassed Loubet in the final test of the leg. However, his car was on fire on the final day and forced to retire from the rally, which handled the victory back to the former category leader Loubet.

Classification

Special stages

Results in bold denote first in the RC2 class, the class which both the WRC-2 Pro and WRC-2 championships run to.

Championship standings

Junior World Rally Championship

dominated the first day, while Sean Johnston retired from the leg due to clipping a bank and plunging off the road. Rådström maintained the lead on leg two, but his lead was slashed to only 1.2 seconds. However, he lost the lead to Jan Solans, who eventually won the J-WRC victory.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

Notes

References

External links

* * 2019

i
''e-wrc website''
* Th
official website
of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Italia, 2019

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

2019 in Italian motorsport June 2019 sports events in Italy

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...