The 2019 Rally Chile (also known as the Copec Rally Chile 2019) was a

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

that was held over four days between 9 and 12 May 2019. It marked the first running of

Rally Chile The Rally Chile is a Chilean rally competition based in Concepción and held throughout the Biobío region of Chile. It was first held in 2018 when it was run as a candidate event as part of a bid to join the World Rally Championship schedule. ...

, and was the sixth round of the

2019 World Rally Championship The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-seventh season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. T ...

World Rally Championship-2 The FIA WRC2 (previously also known as World Rally Championship 2 and WRC 2), is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the main class and crews usually compete immediately ...

and the newly-created WRC-2 Pro class. The 2019 event was based in

Talcahuano Talcahuano () (From Mapudungun ''Tralkawenu'', "Thundering Sky") is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is part of the Greater Concepción conurbation. Talcahuano is located in the south of the Central Zone of Chile. ...

of Concepción Province in Bío Bío Region and consists of sixteen special stages totalling competitive kilometres.

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 Shell Mobis WRT. Tänak achieved his maiden drivers' world title in t ...

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 in the World Rally Championship. Rally career He is the son of Estonian politician Toomas Järveoja, ...

won the first edition of

. Their team,

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT is a World Rally Championship (WRC) team based in Finland that serves as Toyota's official factory team. Its team principal is former WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala. The team made its début during the 2017 season, where ...

, were the manufacturers' winners. The

Škoda Motorsport Škoda Motorsport is the division of Czech car manufacturer Škoda Auto responsible for motorsport activities. The team had competed as a manufacturer in the World Rally Championship between 1999 and 2005 and Intercontinental Rally Challenge (b ...

crew of

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

and

Jonne Halttunen Jonne Halttunen (born 13 December 1985) is a Finnish 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 World Rally ...

took the victory in the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while Takamoto Katsuta and

Daniel Barritt Daniel Barritt (born 23 August 1980) is a British World Rally Championship co-driver from England. Background Barritt was born in Burnley, UK. His family has been involved in rallying for three generations. His grandfather, for example, wa ...

won the wider WRC-2 class.

Background

Championship standings prior to the event

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 in the drivers' championship five times (2013, 2016–20 ...

and

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

led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a ten-point lead over six-time world champions

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champi ...

and

Julien Ingrassia Julien Ingrassia (born 26 November 1979) is a retired French rally co-driver. Working with Sébastien Ogier, he became World Rally Champion in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 with Volkswagen Motorsport, 2017 and 2018 with M-Sport World Rally Team ...

and

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

. In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Łukasz Pieniążek and Kamil Heller held a four-point lead ahead of

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 the ...

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

Mads Østberg Mads Østberg (born 11 October 1987) is a Norwegian 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 which he finishe ...

and Torstein Eriksen were third, eight points further back. In the manufacturers' championship,

M-Sport Ford WRT The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly M-Sport World Rally Team, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team) is the privately run World Rally Championship team of M-Sport, the firm run by Malcolm Wilson that was previ ...

led

Citroën Total Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 8 ...

by seventy points, with

fourteen 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 World ...

and Jaime Zapata led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by three points respectively. Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson were second, following by

Nikolay Gryazin Nikolay Stanislavovich Gryazin (born 7 October 1997) is a Russian rally driver currently competing under a neutral flag representing the Russian Automobile Federation. He is the son of former rally driver Stanislav Gryazin and the younger broth ...

and Yaroslav Fedorov in third.

Entry list

The following crews entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, WRC-2 Pro and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare 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 or deleg ...

entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of sixty-three entries were received, with eleven crews entered with World Rally Cars and twenty-three entered the World Rally Championship-2. Four crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.

Route

Chile has never previously hosted its own WRC round, so every stage is brand new.

Itinerary

All dates and times are CLT ( UTC-3).

Report

World Rally Cars

The second stage of the brand new event was interrupted due to the safety reason, which affected

, who was first on the road. As a result, the Belgian was awarded a notional time. In the afternoon loop,

stormed away and held a 22.4-second lead into Saturday. The second leg was quite dramatic.

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

rolled his Yaris in the opening stage of the day. He managed to carry on, but valuable time has been lost, which dropped him down to tenth overall at the end of the day. One stage later, championship leader Neuville crashed violently after a right-hand blind crest, badly damaging his i20. Luckily, the Belgian and his co-driver

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

were fine, but they were unable to continue the rally. The battle for the final podium was on fire until

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 20 ...

hit a rock in the final test and broke his

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

driveshaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft ( Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to conne ...

, which elevated nine-time world champion

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 h ...

to third, just 5.1 seconds off defending world champion

, who was half a minute behind rally leader Tänak. Eventually, Tänak took the rally victory, following by Ogier, who managed to keep Loeb behind, in second.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2 Pro

led in the Pro category with a slender 2.4-second advantage after an intense battle with

. The eighteen-year-old Finn extended his lead over Østberg as the Norwegian lost 30 seconds when

fluid In physics, a fluid is a liquid, gas, or other material that continuously deforms (''flows'') under an applied shear stress, or external force. They have zero shear modulus, or, in simpler terms, are substances which cannot resist any shea ...

leaked out of the rear brakes of his C3 R5. Eventually, Rovanperä successfully took his first Pro victory of the season.

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.

Classification

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2

Three-time European Rally Champion

Kajetan Kajetanowicz Kajetan Kajetanowicz (born 5 March 1979) is a Polish rally driver. Titles He is a Four time Poland Rally Champion (2010 2011, 2012, 2013). In 2012 he became champion in the Central European Zone Rally Championship. He also became the ERC ...

was initially entered for the event, but due to the mechanical issues in

Rally Argentina The Rally Argentina ( es, Rally de Argentina) is an Argentine rally competition that has been a round of the World Rally Championship, the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, the South American Rally Championship and the Argentine Rally Championshi ...

, he and his team withdrew from Chile. Local hero

Alberto Heller Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Alberti ...

was comfortable in the lead, but his brother Pedro Heller had to retire from the day as he rolled his Fiesta in the opening stage. However, Alberto was surpassed by Takamoto Katsuta in final stage of the second leg. Worse still, the Chilean rolled his Ford Fiesta into retirement in the second to last stage. Eventually, Katsuta brought car home to take his first victory of the season.

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

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

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. There are separate championships ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rally Chile, 2019

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

2019 in Chilean sport May 2019 sports events in South America

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...