2019 Rally Italia Sardegna

2019 Rally Italia Sardegna 16. Rally Italia Sardegna
Round 8 of 14 in the 2019 World Rally Championship ← Previous event Next event →
Rally Sardegna features with fast and narrow stages, with intense heat testing tyre limits.
Host country	Italy
Rally base	Alghero, Sardinia
Dates run	13 – 16 June 2019
Start location	Ittiri motocross track, Alghero
Finish location	Argentiera, Alghero
Stages	19 (310.52 km; 192.95 miles)[1]
Stage surface	Gravel
Transport distance	1,073.12 km (666.81 miles)
Overall distance	1,383.64 km (859.75 miles)
Results
Overall winner	Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT 3:32:27.2
WRC-2 Pro winner	Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen Škoda Motorsport 3:40:51.8
WRC-2 winner	Pierre-Louis Loubet Vincent Landais Pierre-Louis Loubet 3:43:40.2
J-WRC winner	Jan Solans 4:02:36.2
Power Stage winner	Andreas Mikkelsen Anders Jæger-Amland Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT
Crews registered	89
Crews	88 at start, 49 at finish

The 2019 Rally Italia Sardegna (also known as Rally Italia Sardegna 2019) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 13 and 16 June 2019.^[2] It marked the sixteenth running of Rally Italia Sardegna and was the eighth round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and the newly-created WRC-2 Pro class. It was also the third round of the Junior World Rally Championship. The 2019 event was based in Alghero in Sardinia, and was contested over nineteen special stages with a total a competitive distance of 310.52 km (192.95 mi).

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were the defending rally winners. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the defending manufacturers' winners.^[3] Jan Kopecký and were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but they did not defend their titles as they participated in the newly-created WRC-2 Pro class.^[4]

Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio won their second career victory. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, successfully defended their titles.^[5] The Škoda Motorsport crew of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen took hat-trick in the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while the French crew of Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais won the wider WRC-2 class.^[6] The third round of the J-WRC championship was taken by the crew of Jan Solans and .^[7]

Background[]

Championship standings prior to the event[]

Defending world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a two-point ahead of Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were third, a further ten points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a twenty-point lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.^[8]

In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen held a three-point lead ahead of Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Łukasz Pieniążek and Elliott Edmondson were third, nine and ten points further back respectively. In the manufacturers' championship, M-Sport Ford WRT led Škoda Motorsport by thirty-one points, with Citroën Total thirty-three points further behind in third.^[9]

In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Benito Guerra and led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by twenty-two points respectively. Takamoto Katsuta and Daniel Barritt were second, following by Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson in third.^[9]

In the Junior-World Rally Championship standings, Tom Kristensson and led Jan Solans and by thirteen points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with and two points further behind in third in their own standings. In the Nations' standings, Sweden were first, thirteen points clear of Spain, with Estonia two points further behind in third.^[10]

Entry list[]

The following crews entered into the rally. The event opened to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, WRC-2 Pro, Junior World Rally Championship, Italian national championship and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of ninety-four entries were received, with twelve crews entered with World Rally Cars and fifteen entered the World Rally Championship-2. Five crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class. A further eleven entries were received for the Junior World Rally Championship.

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	Jarmo Lehtinen	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
6	Dani Sordo	Carlos del Barrio	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe 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
26	Martin Prokop		MP-Sports	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	M
33	Elfyn Evans	Scott Martin	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
69	Juho Hänninen		Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
89	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Amland	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
World Rally Championship-2 Pro entries
21	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	Citroën Total[a]	Citroën C3 R5	M
22	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
23	Jan Kopecký		Škoda Motorsport	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
24	Gus Greensmith	Elliott Edmondson	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
41	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Takamoto Katsuta[b]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
42	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	Ole Christian Veiby[c]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
43	Nikolay Gryazin		Nikolay Gryazin[d]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
44			[e]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
45	Marco Bulacia Wilkinson		Marco Bulacia Wilkinson[f]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
46	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Kajetan Kajetanowicz[g]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
48		Martijn Wydaeghe	[h]	Citroën C3 R5	M
49	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	Pierre-Louis Loubet[i]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
50	Simone Tempestini		Simone Tempestini[j]	Hyundai i20 R5	P
51	Nil Solans	Marc Martí	Nil Solans[k]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
Junior World Rally Championship entries
71	Tom Kristensson		Tom Kristensson	Ford Fiesta R2	P
72	Jan Solans			Ford Fiesta R2	P
73				Ford Fiesta R2	P
74			ADAC Sachsen	Ford Fiesta R2	P
75				Ford Fiesta R2	P
76				Ford Fiesta R2	P
77	Sean Johnston		Sean Johnston	Ford Fiesta R2	P
78				Ford Fiesta R2	P
79				Ford Fiesta R2	P
80				Ford Fiesta R2	P
81			ADAC Weiser-Ems	Ford Fiesta R2	P
Other Major Entries
96	Albert von Thurn und Taxis		Albert von Thurn und Taxis	Škoda Fabia R5	P
100	Giandomenico Basso			Škoda Fabia R5	P
101	Luca Rossetti			Citroën C3 R5	P
134	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	Adrien Fourmaux	Ford Fiesta R2	M
Source:[11]

Route[]

The Ittiri Arena stage will be removed from the itinerary as well as some slight length-adjustments to selected stages.^[12]

Itinerary[]

All dates and times are CEST (UTC+2).

Report[]

World Rally Cars[]

The first leg saw defending world champion Sébastien Ogier, who was the road-cleaner in Sardinia, caught out after hitting a huge rock in the morning loop. Ogier's Citroën C3 sustained serious suspension damage, forcing him and co-driver Julien Ingrassia to retire from the stage.^[13] Teemu Suninen took an early lead until a spin handed the lead to Jari-Matti Latvala, who rolled his Yaris in the afternoon loop. Things went from bad to worse as the Finn went off the road in the final stage of the leg. Thierry Neuville also hit trouble as his i20 slid nose-first into a ditch, with the Hyundai's radiator being pierced in the ordeal.^[14] Eventually, Dani Sordo became the overnight leader.^[15]

On day two, with a much better road position, Ott Tänak took over the rally — he dominated the day and won all six stages, turning a ten-second deficit to a twenty-five-second lead.^[16] However, his teammate Kris Meeke had to change a punctured tyre in the final test, which dropped him down from fifth to eighth.

Things went against Tänak's favour in the power stage, however, when a late power steering failure deprived the Estonian of a third consecutive rally win, handing the victory to Sordo; his first rally win since the 2013 Rallye Deutschland.^[17]

Classification[]

Special stages[]

Championship standings[]

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships				Manufacturers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points		Move	Manufacturer	Points
1		1	Ott Tänak	150		1	Martin Järveoja	150			Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	242
2		1	Sébastien Ogier	146		1	Julien Ingrassia	146			Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	198
3			Thierry Neuville	143			Nicolas Gilsoul	143			Citroën Total WRT	170
4			Elfyn Evans	78			Scott Martin	78			M-Sport Ford WRT	152
5		1	Teemu Suninen	62			Sebastian Marshall	60

World Rally Championship-2 Pro[]

Mads Østberg was very likely to lead the category, but he lost almost eleven minutes adrift after hitting a stone in the opening stage, which meant Kalle Rovanperä became the leader. Gus Greensmith retired from the day due to plunging down a bank.^[18] Although he restarted on Saturday, a suspension failure forced him to stop again.^[19] Eventually, Rovanperä won the category as well as played a hat-trick.^[6]

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[]

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships				Manufacturers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points		Move	Manufacturer	Points
1			Kalle Rovanperä	111			Jonne Halttunen	111		1	Škoda Motorsport	159
2			Mads Østberg	98			Torstein Eriksen	98		1	M-Sport Ford WRT	159
3		1	Gus Greensmith	85			Elliott Edmondson	85			Citroën Total	98
4			Łukasz Pieniążek	74				62
5			Jan Kopecký	36				36

World Rally Championship-2[]

Pierre-Louis Loubet enjoyed a toublefree day in the lead. The major retirements of the leg included , who ripped a front wheel from his Fabia, and Ole Christian Veiby due to multiple issues.^[18] On day two, Nikolay Gryazin retired from second when he hit a rock and ripped off his right-front wheel. Back to the front, Takamoto Katsuta surpassed Loubet in the final test of the leg.^[19] However, his car was on fire on the final day and forced to retire from the rally, which handled the victory back to the former category leader Loubet.^[6]

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[]

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points
1			Benito Guerra	69				69
2		6	Pierre-Louis Loubet	51		6	Vincent Landais	51
3			Ole Christian Veiby	50			Jonas Andersson	50
4		2	Takamoto Katsuta	47		2	Daniel Barritt	47
5		1	Nikolay Gryazin	38		1		38

Junior World Rally Championship[]

dominated the first day, while Sean Johnston retired from the leg due to clipping a bank and plunging off the road.^[20] Rådström maintained the lead on leg two, but his lead was slashed to only 1.2 seconds.^[21] However, he lost the lead to Jan Solans, who eventually won the J-WRC victory.^[7]

Classification[]

Special stages[]

Championship standings[]

Pos.		Drivers' championships				Co-drivers' championships				Nations' championships
		Move	Driver	Points		Move	Co-driver	Points		Move	Country	Points
1		1	Jan Solans	71		1		71			Sweden	61
2		1	Tom Kristensson	62		1		62			Spain	55
3				56				56		1	Germany	37
4				36				36		1	Estonia	28
5				26				26		4	Romania	24

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website (in Italian and English)
• 2019 Rally Italia Sardegna in e-wrc website
• The official website of the World Rally Championship