2019 WRC2 Championship

The 2019 FIA WRC2 Championship was the seventh season of WRC2, a rallying championship organised and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, running in support of the World Rally Championship. The championship is open to cars complying with R5 regulations.^[1]

2019 FIA WRC2 Championship

Drivers' Champion: Pierre-Louis Loubet
Co-drivers' Champion: Vincent Landais

Previous

2018

Next

2020 (WRC3)

Parent series:
World Rally Championship
WRC2 Pro
Support series:
Junior WRC

The 2019 season saw the creation of a new category within the championship, known as WRC2 Pro.^[2][3] This was open to manufacturer entries competing in cars built to R5 specifications, while the wider WRC2 Championship was open to privately entered cars.

Calendar

A map showing the locations of the rallies in the 2019 championship. Event headquarters are marked with a black dot.

The championship was contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, and Australia.^[2]

Round	Dates		Rally	Rally headquarters	Rally details
	Start	Finish			Surface	Stages	Distance
1	24 January	27 January	Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo	Gap, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur[a]	Mixed[b]	16[c]	323.83 km
2	14 February	17 February	Rally Sweden	Torsby, Värmland	Snow	19	316.80 km
3	7 March	10 March	Rally Guanajuato México	León, Guanajuato	Gravel	21	316.51 km
4	28 March	31 March	Tour de Corse	Bastia, Corsica	Tarmac	14	347.51 km
5	25 April	28 April	Rally Argentina	Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	18[d]	347.50 km
6	9 May	12 May	Rally Chile	Concepción, Biobío	Gravel	16	304.81 km
7	30 May	2 June	Rally de Portugal	Matosinhos, Porto	Gravel	20[e]	311.47 km
8	13 June	16 June	Rally Italia Sardegna	Alghero, Sardinia	Gravel	19	310.52 km
9	1 August	4 August	Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Central Finland	Gravel	23	307.58 km
10	22 August	25 August	ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Bostalsee, Saarland	Tarmac	19	344.04 km
11	12 September	15 September	Rally of Turkey	Marmaris, Muğla	Gravel	17	318.77 km
12	3 October	6 October	Wales Rally GB	Llandudno, Conwy	Gravel	22[f]	312.75 km
13	24 October	27 October	RACC Rally Catalunya de España	Salou, Catalonia	Mixed[g]	17	325.56 km
14	14 November	17 November	Rally Australia	Coffs Harbour, New South Wales	Gravel	Cancelled[h]
Source:[2][5][6]

Calendar expansion

Following the return of Rally Turkey to the championship in 2018, the FIA announced plans to expand the calendar to fourteen rounds in 2019 with the long-term objective of running sixteen championship events. Twelve prospective bids for events were put together,^[7] including candidate events in New Zealand, Japan and Chile.^[8] Prospective events in Kenya, Croatia, Canada and Estonia expressed interest in joining the calendar within five years.^{[9][10][11][12]}

The planned expansion put pressure on European rounds to maintain their position on the calendar as teams were unwilling to contest sixteen events immediately. The Tour de Corse and Rally Italia Sardegna proved to be unpopular among teams for the logistical difficulties of travelling to Corsica and Sardinia and low spectator attendance at the events.^[7][13] Organisers of Rally Japan reached an agreement with the sport's promoter to host a rally in 2019, with the proposed event moving from Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido to Toyota City in Honshu.^[14] However, plans to return to Japan were abandoned when the promoter came under pressure to retain the Tour de Corse.^[15]

The proposed events in Japan and Kenya ran candidate events in 2019 in a bid to join the championship in 2020.^[16][17] Both were successful in secure a place on the 2020 calendar. The calendar published in October 2018 included Rally Chile as part of the expansion to fourteen rounds.^[2] The event was based in Concepción and ran on gravel roads.^[18]

Route changes

The route of Rallye Monte Carlo was shortened by 70.91 km (44.1 mi) compared to the 2018 route.^[19] The route was revised after rule changes that were introduced for the 2019 championship limited the maximum distance of a route to 350 km (217.5 mi).^[2] Organisers of the Tour de Corse announced plans for a new route, with up to three-quarters of the 2019 route being revised from the 2018 rally.^[16] Rally de Portugal was also shortened by 46.72 km (29.0 mi) compared to the 2018 route.^[20]

Entries

In accordance with the 2019 regulations, all crews in WRC2 were required to register as independent entrants. Teams were still allowed to be present, but only to prepare the car for the driver.^[1]

Manufacturer	Team	Car	Tyre	Crew details
				Driver name	Co-driver name	Rounds
Citroën	CHL Sport Auto	Citroën C3 R5	M	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	1, 4
	Citroën Total		M	Guillaume De Mévius	Martijn Wydaeghe	1, 4, 7–8, 10, 12–13
	G.Car Sport Racing		P	Tamara Molinaro	Lorenzo Granai	2
	Citroën Monster Procircuit Rally Team		M	Benjamín Israel	Marcelo Der Ohannesian	6
				Vincente Israel	Matías Ramos	6
				Samuel Israel	Nicolás García	6
	Rosselot Rally Team		M	Eduardo Castro	Julio Echazu	6
	Citroën Vodafone Team		P	José Pedro Fontes	Inês Ponte	7
	Saintéloc Junior Team		M	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	13
	MRT Motorsport	Citroën DS3 R5	M	Germán Lyon	Ignacio Uez	6
Volkswagen	Kristoffersson Motorsport	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	1–2, 4, 7–8, 12–13
			P	Johan Kristoffersson	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	2, 9
	THX Racing		M	Nicolas Ciamin	Yannick Roche	1, 4, 10
	Printsport		M	Emil Lindholm	Mikael Korhonen	2, 9, 13
				Lars Stugemo	Kalle Lexe	2
	BMA Autosport		M	Eric Camilli	François-Xavier Buresi	4
				Alberto Heller	José Díaz	12
			P	Stéphane Lefebvre	Thomas Dubois	10
				Sebastian Schwinn	Felix Griebel	10
	Lotos Rally Team		P	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciek Szczepaniak	4–6, 10, 12–13
	Racing 4 You		M	Pedro Meireles	Mário Castro	7
	PSRX Volkswagen Sweden		P	Oliver Solberg	Aaron Johnston	12
				Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	12
	AR Vidal Racing		P	Nil Solans	Marc Martí	13
Ford	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta R5	M	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	1, 4, 10, 12
				Pedro Heller	Pablo Olmos	3
					Marc Martí	5–6
				Alberto Heller	José Díaz	3, 5–7
				Felipe Rossi	Luis Allende	6
			P	Emil Bergkvist	Patrik Barth	2, 7
				"Pedro"[i]	Emanuele Baldaccini	4, 7
				Nil Solans	Marc Martí	4, 8
	Tommi Mäkinen Racing		P	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	2, 4–8
	Castrol Ford Team Türkiye		P	Murat Bostanci	Onur Vatansever	11
				Bugra Banaz	Burak Erdener	11
	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	P	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	9
	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team		P	"Pedro"	Emanuele Baldaccini	10–11
				Jan Solans	Mauro Barreiro	13
			M	Gaurav Gill	Glenn MacNeall	11–12, 14
				Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	13
				Alberto Heller	José Díaz	13
Škoda	BMA Autosport	Škoda Fabia R5	M	Grégoire Munster[j]	Louis Louka	1, 9
	Brettex Site Services		P	Rhys Yates	Denis Giraudet	1
					James Morgan	2, 4, 7, 10
	Sportec Engineering		P	Manuel Villa	Daniele Michi	1
	Toksport World Rally Team		M	Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	2, 7, 11–12
				Yigit Timur	Maxime Vilmot	2
			P	Eyvind Brynildsen	Veronica Engan	2
	Sports Racing Technologies		P	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	2
			M			4, 7–10
	Printsport		M	Jari Huttunen	Antti Linnaketo	2
				Tomi Tukiainen	Mikko Pohjanharju	9
	Brink Motorsport		P	Martin Berglund	Joakim Gevert	2
	Max Rpm		P	Patrik Flodin	Göran Bergsten	2
	Pontus Tidemand Racing		P	Mattias Monelius	Nicklas Edvardsson	2
	SMK Sundsvall		P	Anton Eriksson	Lars Andersson	2
	SXM Compétition		P	Joakim Roman	Ida Lidebjer	2
			M	Sébastien Bedoret	Thomas Walbrecq	4
	Race Seven		M	Benito Guerra	Jamie Zapata	3, 5–7
			P	Marco Bulacia	Fabian Cretu	11–14
	RB Motorsport					8
	Free Rally Service		M			3
	2C Competition		M	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	4, 7–8
	Motorsport Italia		P	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	4, 8, 10, 13–14
					Emanuele Inglesi	11–12
				Paulo Nobre	Gabriel Morales	5–6, 9, 11–13
			M	Diogo Salvi	Hugo Magalhães	11
	Sport & You				Paulo Babo	7
			P	Miguel Barbosa	Jorge Carvalho	7
	Susaron Rally Team		M	Emilio Fernández	Joaquin Riquelme	6
	CB Tech Rally by Škoda		M	Jorge Martínez	Alberto Alvarez	6
				Alejandro Cancio	Santiago García	6
				Cristóbal Vidaurre	Rubén García	6
	ARC Sport		M	Ricardo Teodósio	José Teixeira	7
				Pedro Almeida	Nuno Almeida	7
	TGS Worldwide		P	Eerik Pietarinen	Juhana Raitanen	7
	P&B Racing		M	António Dias	Nuno Rodrigues da Silva	7
	Lotos Rally Team		P	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciek Szczepaniak	8, 11
	BC Vision Motorsport		P	Burak Cukurova	Vedat Bostanci	11
				Deniz Fahri	Bahadir Gücenmez	11
				Bora Manyera	Çem Cerkez	11
	Calm Competició		M	José Antonio Suarez	Alberto Iglesias	13
	2C Competition	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Randais	9, 12–14
	Toksport World Rally Team		M	Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	9
	SXM Compétition		M	Sébastien Bedoret	Thomas Walbrecq	10
	Škoda Auto Deutschland		M	Marijan Griebel	Pirmin Winklhofer	10
			P	Fabian Kreim	Tobias Braun	10
	Race Seven		M	Benito Guerra	Daniel Cué	12
					Jamie Zapata	13–14
	Sports Racing Technologies		M	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	13
Hyundai	HMI Hyundai Italian Rally Team	Hyundai i20 R5	P	"Pedro"[i]	Emanuele Baldaccini	1
	Hyundai Motorsport N		P	Simone Tempestini	Sergio Itu	4, 7–8, 10, 12–13
				Jari Huttunen	Antti Linnaketo	7
					Mikko Lukka	9
	Point Cola Racing		M	Martín Scuncio	Javiera Roman	6
				Tomás Etcheverry	Sebastián Vera	6
	Team Hyundai Portugal		M	Armindo Araújo	Luis Ramalho	7
				Bruno Magalhães	Hugo Magalhães	7
	Sarrazin Motorsport		P	Dominik Dinkel	Christina Fürst	10
	Melvyn Evans Motorsport		P	Rhys Yates	James Morgan	12–13
Peugeot	Peugeot Sport Chile	Peugeot 208 T16 R5	M	Francisco López	Nicolás Levalle	6
Source:[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]

Crew changes

Daniel Barritt left the M-Sport World Rally Team to partner Toyota protégé Takamoto Katsuta.^[31]

Changes

The formation of the WRC2 Pro championship saw the introduction of changes to eligibility. The Pro category was open to manufacturer-supported entries, with teams permitted to enter two crews per event. Pro entries must contest a minimum of eight rallies, including one outside Europe. Only the eight best results will contribute to the Pro championship. Crews contesting the wider WRC2 will not face any such restrictions.^[32]

The team's championship of the wider WRC2 was discontinued. Entrants in the championship were required to register under the name of the crew's driver.^[1]

Results and standings

Season summary

Round	Event	Winning driver	Winning co-driver	Winning time	Report
1	Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	3:35:12.4	Report
2	Rally Sweden	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	2:54:04.0	Report
3	Rally Guanajuato México	Benito Guerra	Jaime Zapata	3:52:43.5	Report
4	Tour de Corse	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	3:34:28.6	Report
5	Rally Argentina	Pedro Heller	Marc Martí	3:41:09.1	Report
6	Rally Chile	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	3:29:26.7	Report
7	Rally de Portugal	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	3:33:09.1	Report
8	Rally Italia Sardegna	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	3:43:40.2	Report
9	Rally Finland	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	2:41:09.0	Report
10	ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Fabian Kreim	Tobias Braun	3:28:16.7	Report
11	Marmaris Rally of Turkey	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciek Szczepaniak	4:06:00.4	Report
12	Wales Rally GB	Petter Solberg	Phil Mills	3:12:34.1	Report
13	RACC Rally Catalunya de España	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	3:16:26.8	Report
14	Rally Australia	Rally cancelled (due to bushfires)			Report[33]

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Drivers' standings

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG CHI POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points Best 6 1 Pierre-Louis Loubet 10 1 1 4 2 5 C 91 91 2 Kajetan Kajetanowicz 3 Ret WD 2 3 1 12 3 88 88 3 Benito Guerra 1 2 2 6 7 Ret C 75 75 4 Nikolay Gryazin 5 2 5 Ret 1 5 11 73 73 5 Fabio Andolfi 1 7 Ret 3 5 6 WD 64 64 6 Ole Christian Veiby 3 1 Ret Ret 5 11 4 62 62 7 Marco Bulacia 2 4 2 4 Ret WD 60 60 8 Takamoto Katsuta Ret 4 5 1 13 Ret Ret 47 47 9 Henning Solberg 7 3 5 4 WD 43 43 10 Emil Lindholm 2 7 2 42 42 11 Alberto Heller 3 4 Ret 7 6 WD 41 41 12 Paulo Nobre 3 7 6 6 8 Ret 41 41 13 Adrien Fourmaux 2 9 8 3 13 39 39 14 Johan Kristoffersson 3 3 30 30 15 Emil Bergkvist 4 2 30 30 16 Rhys Yates 4 10 5 15 7 10 WD 30 30 17 Simone Tempestini 11 10 3 4 WD Ret 28 28 18 Pedro Heller Ret 1 10 26 26 19 Yoann Bonato 1 12 25 25 20 Fabian Kreim 1 25 25 21 Petter Solberg 1 25 25 22 Eric Camilli Ret 1 25 25 23 Guillaume De Mévius Ret 7 9 6 10 9 8 23 23 24 Jari Huttunen Ret Ret 2 18 18 25 Marian Griebel 2 18 18 26 Alejandro Cancio 3 15 15 27 Cristóbal Vidaurre 4 12 12 28 Eerik Pietarinen 4 12 12 29 Nicolas Ciamin 5 Ret Ret 10 10 30 Samuel Israel 5 10 10 31 Burak Cukurova 5 10 10 32 Manuel Villa 6 8 8 33 Eyvind Brynildsen 6 8 8 34 Sébastien Bedoret 6 Ret 8 8 35 Vincente Israel 6 8 8 36 Dominik Dinkel 6 8 8 37 "Pedro" Ret 8 16 9 9 12 8 8 38 Bora Manyera 7 6 6 39 José Antonio Suárez 7 6 6 40 Patrik Flodin 8 4 4 41 Eduardo Castro 8 4 4 42 Armindo Araújo 8 4 4 43 Grégoire Munster 8 4 4 44 Diogo Salvi Ret 8 4 4 45 Mattias Monelius 9 2 2 46 Francisco López 9 2 2 47 Nil Solans Ret Ret 9 2 2 48 Jan Solans 10 1 2 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG CHI POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points Best 6

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Co-drivers' standings

Pos. Co-Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG CHI POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points Best 6 1 Vincent Landais 10 1 1 4 2 5 C 91 91 2 Maciek Szczepaniak 3 Ret WD 2 3 1 12 3 88 88 3 Yaroslav Fedorov 5 2 5 Ret 1 5 11 73 73 4 Jaime Zapata 1 2 2 6 69 69 5 Jonas Andersson 3 1 Ret Ret 5 11 4 62 62 6 Fabian Cretu 2 4 2 4 Ret WD 60 60 7 Daniel Barritt Ret 4 5 1 13 Ret Ret 47 47 8 Ilka Minor 7 3 5 4 WD 43 43 9 Mikael Korhonen 2 7 2 42 42 10 José Díaz 3 4 Ret 7 6 WD 41 41 11 Gabriel Morales 3 7 6 6 8 Ret 41 41 12 Renaud Jamoul 2 9 8 3 13 39 39 13 Emanuele Inglesi 3 5 6 33 33 14 Simone Scattolin 1 7 Ret WD 31 31 15 Stig Rune Skjærmoen 3 3 30 30 16 Patrik Barth 4 2 30 30 17 Marc Martí Ret Ret 1 10 Ret 9 28 28 18 Sergiu Itu 11 10 3 4 WD Ret 28 28 19 Benjamin Boulloud 1 12 25 25 20 Tobias Braun 1 25 25 21 Phil Mills 1 25 25 22 Benjamin Veillas 1 25 25 23 Martijn Wydaeghe Ret 7 9 6 10 9 8 23 23 24 Mikko Lukka 2 18 18 25 Pirmin Winklhofer 2 18 18 26 James Morgan 10 5 15 7 10 WD 18 18 27 Santiago García 3 15 15 28 Denis Giraudet 4 12 12 29 Rubén García 4 12 12 30 Juhana Raitanen 4 12 12 31 Yannick Roche 5 Ret Ret 10 10 32 Nicolás García 5 10 10 33 Vedat Bostanci 5 10 10 34 Daniele Michi 6 8 8 35 Veronica Engan 6 8 8 36 Thomas Walbrecq 6 Ret 8 8 37 Matías Ramos 6 8 8 38 Christina Fürst 6 8 8 39 Emanuele Baldaccini Ret 8 16 9 9 12 8 8 40 Çem Cerkez 7 6 6 41 Daniel Cué 7 Ret C 6 6 42 Alberto Iglesias 7 6 6 43 Göran Bergsten 8 4 4 44 Julio Echazu 8 4 4 45 Luís Ramalho 8 4 4 46 Louis Louka Ret 8 4 4 47 Hugo Magalhães Ret 8 4 4 48 Nicklas Edvardsson 9 2 2 49 Nicolás Levalle 9 2 2 50 Mauro Barreiro 10 1 1 Pos. Co-Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG CHI POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points Best 6

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Footnotes

1. The rally base of the Monte Carlo Rally was located in France.
2. The Monte Carlo Rally was run on a tarmac and snow surface.
3. The third stage of the rally was cancelled on safety grounds when spectator areas became overcrowded.
4. The third stage of the rally was cancelled due to the weather.
5. The 14th and the 15th stage of the rally was cancelled.
6. The 20th stage of the rally was cancelled due to insufficient safety cover.
7. The first leg of Rally Catalunya will run on gravel stages and the second and third legs on tarmac stages.
8. Rally Australia was cancelled due to a bushfire emergency in Northern New South Wales.^[4]
9. Pseudonym of Massimo Pedretti.
10. Grégoire Munster entered Rally Monte Carlo with a racing licence issued by Luxembourg and Rally Finland with a Belgian licence.