The 2019 Monte Carlo Rally (also known as the 87^e Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) was a

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

event for

rally cars Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sports ...

that was held over four days between 25 and 28 January 2019. It marked the eighty-seventh running of the

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Albert I, Prince of Monaco, Prince Albert I, the rally ...

, and was the first round of the 2019 World Rally Championship. It was also the first round of the World Rally Championship-2 and the newly created WRC-2 Pro class. The 2019 event was based in the town of Gap in the

Hautes-Alpes Hautes-Alpes (; ; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population ...

department of France and consists of sixteen special stages. The rally covered a total competitive distance of . Reigning World Drivers' and World Co-Drivers Champions

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Eugène Emile Ogier (; born 17 December 1983) is a French Rallying, rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He is currently teamed with co-driver Vincent Landais. He has won 8 List ...

and

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

were the defending rally winners. M-Sport Ford WRT, the team they drove for in 2018, were the defending manufacturers' winners. The

Škoda Motorsport ŠKODA Motorsport is the sports factory team of the car manufacturer Škoda Auto, currently focusing on the development and construction of racing cars. The latest model from Škoda Motorsport's workshops is the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, which was ...

crew of Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but did not enter the rally. In the

World Rally Championship-3 The FIA WRC3 is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the parent series and crews usually compete immediately after WRC2 entrants. Entry into WRC3 is limited to cars that ...

category, Italian

privateers A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding 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 o ...

Enrico Brazzoli and Luca Beltrame were the reigning rally winners, but did not defend their title as the WRC-3 category was discontinued in 2019. Ogier and Ingrassia successfully defended their titles. Their team,

Citroën World Rally Team The Citroën Total World Rally Team was the Citroën factory backed entry into the World Rally Championship (WRC), run by Citroën Racing. History Background In 1998, following its withdrawal from Rally raid competition, Citroën Sport bega ...

, were the manufacturers' winners. The victory also marked the 100th world rally success for the French manufacturer. The M-Sport Ford WRT crew 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 th ...

and Elliott Edmondson became the first crew to win an event in the WRC-2 Pro category, while Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud won the wider WRC-2 class, finishing second in the combined WRC-2 category.

Background

Entry list

The following crews are entered into the rally. The event is open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and WRC-2 Pro, the FIA R-GT Cup, and

privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding 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 o ...

entries not registered to score points in any championship. Eighty-four crews registered to compete, including eleven competing with World Rally Cars and eleven in World Rally Championship-2. Three of these crews were nominated to score points in the WRC-2 Pro class, but one withdrew before the rally and the crew became a regular WRC-2 entrant.

Route

The rally route is made up of in competitive stages, making the 2019 route the shortest since the 2004 event. The route will be shorter than the one used in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. The Thoard — Sisteron and Bayons — Bréziers were removed from the itinerary and replaced by a new stage from La Bréole to Selonnet and the revival of the Avançon — Notre-Dame-du-Laus stage, which had not been contested for a decade. The opening day's stages were also revised to be better-centred around the rally base in Gap. The second and third leg of the rally were unchanged from the 2018 event. The route was revised after the

Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocacy, advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automot ...

introduced rule changes for the 2019 championship that limited the maximum distance of a route to .

Itinerary

All dates and times are

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

(

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

Report

World Rally Cars

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 Motorsport in the World Rally Championship. Tänak achieved his maiden ...

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

took the early lead during the first two night stages. However, their lead was short-lived as

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 five times (2013, 2016–2019) and achieved his maiden ...

and

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

moved to the front after the cancellation of the third stage.

and

then took over the rally as the Belgian crew missed a junction. Eventually, the six-time world champions won the rally for the sixth time in a row. Neuville and Gilsoul were second, 2.2 seconds behind Ogier and Ingrassia, thus making 2019 the closest finish to the

in history. The previous closest finish was the 1979 edition, with Bernard Darniche winning by just 6.6 seconds over

Björn Waldegård Björn Waldegård (12 November 1943 – 29 August 2014) was a Swedish rally driver, and the winner of the World Rally Championship for drivers in 1979. His Swedish nickname was "Walle". Career Waldegård, who came from Rimbo, had a career that ...

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2 Pro

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

World Rally Championship-2

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

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''e-wrc website''
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official website
of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monte Carlo Rally, 2019 2019 in French motorsport 2019 in Monégasque sport 2019 World Rally Championship season January 2019 sports events in France

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...