2019 Rally Argentina
The 2019 Rally Argentina was a motor racing event for rally cars that held over four days between 25 and 28 April 2019. It marked the thirty-ninth running of Rally Argentina, and was the fifth round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and the newly created [2019 2019 World Rally Championship-2|World Rally Championship-2 Pro|WRC-2 Pro class]. The 2019 event was based in Villa Carlos Paz in Córdoba Province and consisted of eighteen special stages totalling competitive kilometres.
Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja were the defending rally winners. Their team, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, were the manufacturers' winners. Pontus Tidemand and Jonas Andersson were the defending winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but they did not participate in the event.
Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul won the rally for the second time in their career. Their team, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, were the manufacturers' winners. The Citroën Total crew of Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen won the WRC-2 Pro category, finishing first in the combined WRC-2 category, while the crew of Pedro Heller and Marc Martí won the wider WRC-2 class. Østberg's win marked the first World Championship victory for the R5-spec Citroën C3.
Background
Championship standings prior to the event
Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships by two-points ahead of six-time world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja were third, a further three points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a twelve-point lead over Citroën Total WRT.In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Łukasz Pieniążek and Kamil Heller held a twenty-two-point lead ahead of Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were third, four points further back. In the manufacturers' championship, M-Sport Ford WRT lead Škoda Motorsport by sixty-six points, with Citroën Total eleven points further behind in third.
In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by twelve points respectively. Nikolay Gryazin and Yaroslav Fedorov were second, following by Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud in third.
Entry list
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 twenty-seven entries were received, with ten crews entered with World Rally Cars and nine entered the World Rally Championship-2. Three crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.Route
No major changes are made to the route this year apart from some slight length-reductions to selected stages.Itinerary
All dates and times are ART.Report
World Rally Cars
Normally, the road cleaner has to endure the insufficient grip, but this year in Argentina was different — persistent rain over the previous forty-eight hours meant the road was muddy and difficult to drive through for the crews who started down the road order. As a result, championship leader Thierry Neuville grabbed the lead as defending rally winner Ott Tänak lost valuable time with a broken drive shaft. The only casualty of the day was Esapekka Lappi, who was crashed out in the final stage of Friday and forced to retire from the rally.Coming to the second leg, the battle for the victory was extremely intense until Tänak stopped his Yaris due to an alternator failure in the afternoon loop. Another casualty of the leg was Elfyn Evans, who rolled his Fiesta heavily after smashed a huge rock. As a result, the Welshman was forced to retire from the weekend. Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier lost power steering in the morning loop, while Kris Meeke lost his brakes. Following the drivers ahead suffered issues, Andreas Mikkelsen charged himself to second overall after the oil-leak issue fixed. Eventually, the Hyundai duos managed to bring their team a 1–2 finish. Ogier completed the podium as Meeke receive a ten-second penalty for deviating from the correct route in Saturday morning's speed test.