2019 Rally Catalunya

2019 Rally Catalunya
55. RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada
Round 13 of 14 in the 2019 World Rally Championship
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Home heroes Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio driving a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC through a stage.
Host country Spain
Rally baseSalou, Tarragona
Dates run24 – 27 October 2019
Start locationGandesa, Tarragona
Finish locationBaix Camp, Tarragona
Stages17 (325.56 km; 202.29 miles)[1]
Stage surfaceGravel / Tarmac
Transport distance953.78 km (592.65 miles)
Overall distance1,278.86 km (794.65 miles)
Statistics
Crews registered64
Crews61 at start, 42 at finish
Overall results
Overall winnerBelgium Thierry Neuville
Belgium Nicolas Gilsoul
South Korea Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT
3:07:39.6
Power Stage winnerEstonia Ott Tänak
Estonia Martin Järveoja
Japan Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Support category results
WRC-2 winnerFrance Eric Camilli
France Benjamin Veillas
France Eric Camilli
3:16:26.8

The 2019 Rally Catalunya (also known as RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada 2019) was a motor racing event for rally cars which was held over four days between 24 and 27 October 2019.[2] It marks the fifty-fifth running of Rally Catalunya and is the thirteenth round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, the newly created WRC-2 Pro class, World Rally Championship-2, the Spanish national Rally Championship and Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica championship.[a] The 2019 event is based in Salou in Tarragona, and is contested over seventeen special stages with a total a competitive distance of 325.56 km (202.29 mi).

Nine-time world champions Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena were the defending rally winners. Citroën Total WRT, the team they drove for in 2018, were the defending manufacturers' winners.[4] The Finnish crew of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen 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.[5]

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul won the rally for the first time in their career. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the manufacturers' winners.[6] The Citroën Total crew of Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen won the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while the French crew of Eric Camilli and Benjamin Veillas won the wider WRC-2 class.[7]

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja finished second overall as well as taking the power stage victory, which was enough for them to seal their maiden World Rally Championship titles.[8] This made Tänak the first non-French driver to be World Rally Champion since Petter Solberg won the 2003 World Rally Championship 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 took the first World Rally Championship-2 Pro manufacturers’ title.[7]

  1. ^ "Itinerary" (PDF). rallyracc.com. Rally de Catalunya. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  2. ^ "FIA announces World Motor Sport Council decisions". fia.com. Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  3. ^ "55. RallyRACC Catalunya - Costa Daurada 2019". ewrc-results.com. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Sunday in Spain:Loeb Turns back the clock". wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 28 October 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  5. ^ "WRC 2 in Spanin:Rovanperä Nets Masterful win". wrc.com. WRC. 28 October 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Sunday in Spain: Tänak takes WRC title". wrc.com. WRC. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Sunday in WRC 2: Heartbreak for Loubet". wrc.com. WRC. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  8. ^ "Tänak: 'mt title dilemma'". wrc.com. WRC. 28 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.


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