The 2009 World Rally Championship was the 37th season of the

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

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 FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

. The season consisted of twelve rallies and began on 30 January, with

Rally Ireland Rally Ireland was added to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar in 2007. It was not part of the 2008 schedule, but returned as the First round of the championship in 2009. The north–south event is the largest sporting occasion o ...

and ended with

Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

on 25 October.

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

won the World Drivers' championship at Rally GB by one point from

Mikko Hirvonen Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2 ...

, taking his sixth consecutive crown. Citroën secured their fifth Manufacturers' title,

Martin Prokop Martin Prokop (born 4 October 1982) is a Czech rally driver. He won the Junior World Rally Championship in the 2009 season. Career After competing in the Czech Rally Championship for four years, Prokop debuted in the World Rally Champions ...

won the JWRC Drivers' championship and Armindo Araujo won the PWRC Drivers' championship.

Regulation changes

The number of mechanics available per car has been dropped from 12 to 8.

Calendar

The 2009 championship was contested over twelve rounds in

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South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

and

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. The 2009 season included twelve rallies, which was three fewer than the 2008 season, because the

imposed a "Round Rotation" System in order to attract candidate rallies to have a chance to be a WRC event. Monte Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, Germany, New Zealand, France and Japan were dropped from the calendar for 2009, but will return at the 2010 WRC Season. Ireland, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Poland and Australia returned to the 2009 season. The eight events also part of the

Production World Rally Championship The FIA Production World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and obtained th ...

were Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Australia and Rally GB. The eight rallies also on the

Junior World Rally Championship The FIA Junior WRC, also known as JWRC and previously known as Junior World Rally Championship, is an international rallying competition restricted to drivers under 29 years old. The championship currently consists of five select rallies of th ...

schedule were Ireland, Cyprus, Portugal, Argentina, Italy, Poland, Finland and Spain.

Teams and drivers

In 2009 two categories are eligible to compete for the Manufacturer's championship: Manufacturer (M) *must take part in all the rallies of the Championship with two cars of the same make *must enter only cars corresponding to the latest homologated version of a World Rally Car in conformity with the 2009 Appendix J *must inform the FIA of the name of the first driver entered for the season at the time of registration for the Championship. No change of the first driver is authorised, except in a case of force majeure. The driver of the second car may be changed for each of the rallies in the Championship Manufacturer Team (MT) *must take part in a minimum of 8 Championship rallies with one or two cars; those rallies must be nominated on registering for the Championship *cannot enter World Rally Cars homologated during the year 2009 and cannot use parts homologated after 2 January 2009 *can only score points in the events it nominated on registering. The registered ''Manufacturers'' are Citroën Total World Rally Team and

BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the ''Ford Motor Co. Team'' prior to 2005, is Ford Motor Company's full factory World Rally Championship team. In its current form, it has been a competitor since the 1997 season, when Ford Motor Compa ...

; the registered ''Manufacturer Teams'' are Stobart VK M-Sport Ford, Munchi's Ford and Citroën Junior Team. Suzuki and Subaru pulled out of the WRC at the end of the 2008 championship, both citing the economic downturn then affecting the automotive industry for their withdrawal.

J-WRC Entries

P-WRC Entries

:† – At each rally, the organiser may nominate two "guest drivers" from their country to score support category points.

Results and standings

Results and statistics

Notes: * – Stages 7 (Murley) and 8 (Fardross) were cancelled. * – Stages 3 (Evangelistria) and 16 (Loutraki 2) were cancelled. * – Stages 6 (CTEK East 1) and 11 (CTEK East 2) were cancelled.

Drivers' championship

secured the drivers' championship title in Wales.

Manufacturers' championship

* Citroën secured the manufacturers' championship in Catalunya.

JWRC Drivers' championship

PWRC Drivers' championship

References

External links

Official website of the World Rally Championship

FIA World Rally Championship 2009
at ewrc-results.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2009 World Rally Championship Season World Rally Championship seasons