2019 Rally Chile

2019 Rally Chile 1. Copec Rally Chile
Round 6 of 14 in the 2019 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Host country	Chile
Rally base	Concepción, Biobío
Dates run	9 – 12 May 2019
Start location	El Pinar, Concepción Province
Finish location	Villa Verde, Concepción Province
Stages	16 (304.81 km; 189.40 miles)[1]
Stage surface	Gravel
Transport distance	940.87 km (584.63 miles)
Overall distance	1,245.68 km (774.03 miles)
Statistics
Crews registered	63
Crews	55 at start, 35 at finish
Overall results
Overall winner	Ott Tänak Martin Järveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 3:15:53.8
Power Stage winner	Ott Tänak Martin Järveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Support category results
WRC-2 winner	Takamoto Katsuta Daniel Barritt Takamoto Katsuta 3:29:26.7

The 2019 Rally Chile (also known as the Copec Rally Chile 2019) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 9 and 12 May 2019.^[2] It marked the first running of Rally Chile, and was the sixth round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and the newly created WRC-2 Pro class. The 2019 event was based in Talcahuano of Concepción Province in Bío Bío Region and consists of sixteen special stages totalling 304.81 km (189.40 mi) competitive kilometres.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja won the first edition of Rally Chile. Their team, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, were the manufacturers' winners.^[3] The Škoda Motorsport crew of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen took the victory in the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while Takamoto Katsuta and Daniel Barritt won the wider WRC-2 class.^[4]

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a ten-point lead over six-time world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja 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 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.^[5]

In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Łukasz Pieniążek and Kamil Heller held a four-point lead ahead of Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen were third, eight points further back. In the manufacturers' championship, M-Sport Ford WRT led Citroën Total by seventy points, with Škoda Motorsport fourteen points further behind in third.^[6]

In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Benito Guerra 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 and Yaroslav Fedorov in third.^[6]

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 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.

No.	Driver	Co-Driver	Entrant	Car	Tyre
World Rally Car entries
1	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	M
3	Teemu Suninen	Marko Salminen	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
4	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	M
5	Kris Meeke	Sebastian Marshall	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
10	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
11	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
19	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
33	Elfyn Evans	Scott Martin	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
37	Lorenzo Bertelli	Simone Scattolin	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
89	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Amland	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
World Rally Championship-2 Pro entries
21	Gus Greensmith	Elliott Edmondson	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5	M
22	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport[a]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
23	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	Citroën Total[b]	Citroën C3 R5	M
24	Marco Bulacia Wilkinson	Fabian Cretu	Škoda Motorsport[c]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
41	Benito Guerra	Jaime Zapata	Benito Guerra[d]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
42	Alberto Heller	José Díaz	Alberto Heller[e]	Ford Fiesta R5	M
43	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Kajetan Kajetanowicz[f]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
44	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Takamoto Katsuta[g]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
45	Pedro Heller	Marc Martí	Pedro Heller[e]	Ford Fiesta R5	M
46	Paulo Nobre	Gabriel Morales	Paulo Nobre[h]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
47	Emilio Fernández	Emilio Fernández	Joaquin Riquelme	Škoda Fabia R5	M
48	Benjamin Israel	Marcelo Der Ohannesian	Benjamin Israel[i]	Citroën C3 R5	M
49	Vicente Israel	Matias Ramos	Vicente Israel[i]	Citroën C3 R5	M
50	Samuel Israel	Nicolas Garcia	Samuel Israel[i]	Citroën C3 R5	M
51	Jorge Martínez Fontena	Alberto Alvarez	Jorge Martínez Fontena	Škoda Fabia R5	M
52	Alejandro Cancio	Santiago Garcia	Alejandro Cancio	Škoda Fabia R5	M
53	Cristóbal Vidaurre	Ruben Garcia	Cristóbal Vidaurre	Škoda Fabia R5	M
54	Felipe Rossi	Luis Ernesto Allende	Felipe Rossi	Ford Fiesta R5	M
55	Francisco Lopez	Nicolas Levalle	Francisco Lopez	Peugeot 208 T16	M
56	Germán Lyon	Ignacio Uez Ahumada	Germán Lyon	Peugeot 208 T16	M
57	Eduardo Castro	Julio Echazu	Eduardo Castro	Citroën C3 R5	M
58	Martin Scuncio	Javiera Roman	Martin Scuncio	Hyundai i20 R5	M
59	Tomas Etcheverry	Sebastian Vera	Tomas Etcheverry	Hyundai i20 R5	M
Source:[7]

Chile has never previously hosted its own WRC round, so every stage is brand new.^[8]

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

The second stage of the brand new event was interrupted due to the safety reason, which affected Thierry Neuville, who was first on the road. As a result, the Belgian was awarded a notional time.^[9] In the afternoon loop, Ott Tänak stormed away and held a 22.4-second lead into Saturday.^[10]

The second leg was quite dramatic. Kris Meeke 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.^[11] 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 were fine, but they were unable to continue the rally.^[12] The battle for the final podium was on fire until Jari-Matti Latvala hit a rock in the final test and broke his Toyota's driveshaft, which elevated nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb to third, just 5.1 seconds off defending world champion Sébastien Ogier, who was half a minute behind rally leader Tänak.^[13] Eventually, Tänak took the rally victory, following by Ogier, who managed to keep Loeb behind, in second.^[3]

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships				Manufacturers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points		Move	Manufacturer	Points
1		1	Sébastien Ogier	122		1	Julien Ingrassia	122			Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	178
2		1	Ott Tänak	112		1	Martin Järveoja	112			Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	149
3		2	Thierry Neuville	110		2	Nicolas Gilsoul	110			Citroën Total WRT	143
4			Kris Meeke	56			Sebastian Marshall	56			M-Sport Ford WRT	100
5			Elfyn Evans	55			Scott Martin	55

Kalle Rovanperä led in the Pro category with a slender 2.4-second advantage after an intense battle with Mads Østberg.^[14] The eighteen-year-old Finn extended his lead over Østberg as the Norwegian lost 30 seconds when fluid leaked out of the rear brakes of his C3 R5.^[15] Eventually, Rovanperä successfully took his first Pro victory of the season.^[4]

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

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships				Manufacturers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points		Move	Manufacturer	Points
1		1	Gus Greensmith	73		1	Elliott Edmondson	73			M-Sport Ford WRT	135
2		1	Mads Østberg	68		1	Torstein Eriksen	68		1	Škoda Motorsport	73
3		2	Łukasz Pieniążek	62		2	Kamil Heller	62		1	Citroën Total	68
4		1	Kalle Rovanperä	61		1	Jonne Halttunen	61
5			Marco Bulacia Wilkinson	12			Fabian Cretu	12

Three-time European Rally Champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz was initially entered for the event, but due to the mechanical issues in Rally Argentina, he and his team withdrew from Chile.^[16]

Local hero Alberto Heller 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.^[14] However, Alberto was surpassed by Takamoto Katsuta in final stage of the second leg.^[15] 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.^[4]

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

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points
1			Benito Guerra	61			Jaime Zapata	61
2		7	Takamoto Katsuta	47		7	Daniel Barritt	47
3		1	Ole Christian Veiby	40		1	Jonas Andersson	40
4		1	Nikolay Gryazin	28		1	Yaroslav Fedorov	28
5		1	Alberto Heller	27		1	José Díaz	27

• Official website (in Spanish and English)
• 2019 Rally Chile in e-wrc website
• The official website of the World Rally Championship