The 2019 Rally Catalunya (also known as RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada 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 ...

which was held over four days between 24 and 27 October 2019. It marks the fifty-fifth running of

Rally Catalunya The Rally Catalunya (formerly: Rallye Catalunya) is a rally competition held in the Catalonia region of Spain, on the World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned an ...

and is the thirteenth 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 ...

, the newly created WRC-2 Pro class,

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 ...

, the Spanish national Rally Championship and Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica championship. The 2019 event is based in

Salou Salou () is a municipality of the ''comarca'' of Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. The city is approximately 10 km from Tarragona and Reus on the Costa Daurada and 112 km from Barcelona. Founded by the Gre ...

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

, and is contested over seventeen special stages with a total a competitive distance of . Nine-time world champions

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rally, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nine times in a row. He ho ...

and

Daniel Elena Daniel Elena (born 26 October 1972) also known as "Danos" is a Monégasque rally co-driver working most notably with Sébastien Loeb. Between them the pair have won the World Rally Championship (WRC) nine times with Citroën, later competing w ...

were the defending rally winners. Citroën Total WRT, the team they drove for in 2018, were the defending manufacturers' winners. The Finnish 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 ...

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

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.

won the rally for the first time in their career. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the manufacturers' winners. The

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 ...

crew 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 ...

won the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while the French crew of

Eric Camilli Eric Camilli (born 6 September 1987) is a French rally driver. He has competed in the World Rally Championship since 2014. After starting out in the lower levels, he made his debut in the top level in 2016 while driving for M-Sport in a Ford F ...

and

Benjamin Veillas Benjamin Veillas (born 26 February 1983) is a French rally co-driver competing with Pierre-Louis Loubet for M-Sport WRT in the FIA World Rally Championship. Biography Veillas started his co-driver career in 1997, and made his World Rally Champ ...

won the wider WRC-2 class.

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 ...

finished second overall as well as taking 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 ...

victory, which was enough for them to seal their maiden

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 ...

titles. This made Tänak the first non-French driver to be World Rally Champion since

Petter Solberg Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974), nicknamed "Mr. Hollywood" is a Norwegian former professional rallying, rally and rallycross driver. Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford World Rally Team, For ...

won the

2003 World Rally Championship The 2003 World Rally Championship was the 31st season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 14 rallies. The drivers' world championship was won by Petter Solberg in a Subaru Impreza WRC, ahead of Sébastien Loeb and Ca ...

title, ending a run of 5,831 days in which a Sébastien was the current champion. With a 2-3 finish in the Pro category,

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 ...

took the first World Rally Championship-2 Pro manufacturers’ title.

Background

Championship standings prior to the event

and

led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships by twenty-eight-points ahead of 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 ...

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 thirteen points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held an eight-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, newly crowned champions

and

led by sixty-six points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively.

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 ...

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 ...

are second, with

and

further five points behind in third. In the manufacturers' championship,

led M-Sport Ford WRT by fifty-three points, with

over a hundred points behind in third. In the World Rally Championship-2 standings,

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 ...

led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by six and eight points respectively.

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 Maciej Szczepaniak were second, while Kajetan Kajetanowicz and

Yaroslav Fedorov Yaroslav () is a Slavic masculine given name. Its variant spelling is Jaroslav and Iaroslav, and its feminine form is Yaroslava. The surname derived from the name is Yaroslavsky and its variants. East Slavic patronymics are Yaroslavovich and Ya ...

were 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, Spanish national Rally Championship, Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica 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 sixty-four entries were received, with eleven crews entered with World Rally Cars and twenty-four entered the World Rally Championship-2. Four crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.

Route

The La Mussara stage is scheduled to return to the itinerary for the first time since

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and due to run as 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 ...

on Sunday.

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 ...

) from 24 to 26 October 2019 and

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

) on 27 October 2019.

Report

World Rally Cars

It was a devastating blow for the reigning world champion

's title hope. After setting the fastest stage time at the opening stage, the Frenchman's C3 was crawling through the rest of the morning loop due to

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 and loss of

hydraulics Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

, which lost the six-time world champion nearly three minutes.

Citroën 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 ...

's rally went from bad to worse as

Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi (; born 17 January 1991) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. He now drives for Hyundai Motorsport. In 2024, he won his second ever event in ...

retired from the rally with

engine 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 ge ...

issues in the afternoon loop.

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 ...

ended the first leg in 1-2-3 after all three drivers set impressive times, until

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 ...

broke the monopoly after the first stage of the second leg. However, his position was short-lived as the Briton understeer into the barrier and retired from the day. Despite Meeke's retirement, the Korean squad's 1-2-3 was still under threat from the title-chasing

, who won four stages on Saturday. The championship leader was flying through the

and snatched second from local hero

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 ...

to seal his maiden WRC title.

eventually won the rally for the first time in

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 ...

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

*Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions.

World Rally Championship-2 Pro

dominated Friday with an over-40-second lead going into Saturday. However, the Norwegian's lead was under a big threat from the freshly-crowned WRC-2 Pro champion

, until the youngster hit a post in the

stage and damaged the rear

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

on his Fabia R5. That left Østberg comfortable to win the category.

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

*Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions.

World Rally Championship-2

Nil Solans Nil Solans Baldó (born 14 April 1992) is a Spanish rally driver. Biography Solans won the Junior World Rally Championship and WRC-3 in 2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the ...

took an early lead, but a double

puncture Puncture, punctured or puncturing may refer to: * a flat tyre in British English (US English "flat tire" or just "flat") * a penetrating wound caused by pointy objects as nails or needles * Lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap * Puncture ( ...

dropped the local hero over eight minutes. Championship leader

edged

by only 1.5 seconds after Friday, but Camilli surpassed Loubet and built a comfortable lead before the day ended. Championship contender

retired from the rally due to mechanical issues. On Sunday, Loubet went off the road and beached his Fabia, which dropped him to fifth. Although the Frenchman still remained on top, his lead was down to just three points. Camilli won the class in the end to give C3 R5 an 1-2 finish in the combined R5 class with Østberg.

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

Notes

References

External links

* * 2019

Rally de Catalunya The Rally Catalunya (formerly: Rallye Catalunya) is a rally competition held in the Catalonia region of Spain, on the World Rally Championship schedule. Now held on the wide, smooth and sweeping asphalt roads around the town of Salou, Costa Dau ...

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Catalunya, 2019

2019 in Catalan sport 2019 in Spanish motorsport October 2019 sports events in Spain

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 ...

Sport in the Province of Tarragona