Ott Tanak scored his first win on Wales Rally GB, avoiding punctures and staying on the road in the extremely poor weather and road conditions, upholding the traditions and expectations of this rally.
Toyota led the event throughout, firstly with Kris Meeke and then with the winning Tanak. Tanak’s rivals for the Drivers’ Championship, Thierry Neuville (2nd) and Sebastien Ogier (3rd), ended the rally scoring exactly the same number of points, 19, as he extended his lead to 28 points.
Toyota narrowed the gap in the Manufacturers’ championship to leaders Hyundai to 8 points.
Kalle Rovenpera secured the WRC2 Pro title in his Skoda Fabia Evo and won the R5 category ahead of four times Rally GB winner Petter Solberg in his VW Polo.
Jan Solans took the Junior WRC title after a season long battle with Tom Kristensson. Jan’s brother Nil won the title in 2017, the first brothers to have won any FIA World Rally title.
Wales Rally GB winner Ott Tanak.
The twelfth round of the 2019 WRC was Britain’s round of the series, Wales Rally GB, which this year celebrated the event’s 75th anniversary.
The current format of the event, concentrated on competition in forest stages in north and central Wales remained, but the base of the rally had been moved from Deeside further into North Wales at Llandudno.
The start was in Liverpool and the first stage a further 70km drive into England at an otherwise picturesque Oulton Park circuit, which was run in darkness before a 100km road section back to Llandudno. The rest of the event stayed in Wales.
Once again very limited use had been made of the legislation allowing rallying to close public roads in Britain.
Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
As with the two previous rounds of the championship (Germany and Turkey) punctures played a significant part in the fortunes of drivers across the field as did the weather (Shakedown the first opportunity the teams had to check their chosen set-ups in representative conditions) and the use light pods (three stages held in darkness).
There was also an alleged route deviations on stage 8 by Ogier, Neuville and Mikkelsen, but after consideration no action was taken by the Stewards.
Kris Meeke took the lead on the opening stage where Tanak found his lights were badly adjusted and he missed a corner and stalled. Jari-Matti Latvala had a couple of early near misses before rolling his Yaris on its roof and retired with a damaged roll cage.
Teemu Suninen continued his strong form for M-Sport.
Meeke retained the lead through to the penultimate stage on Friday where Tanak was fastest and rose to second after leapfrogging both Ogier and Neuville. Toyota were 1-2. Tanak had been adjusting the setup of his car through the day and he was able to go into the lead when Meeke had a big slide on stage 10.
Once in the lead Tanak controlled the rally increasing his lead to 11.0 seconds despite losing his rear bumper and damaging the rear hatchback door, “I kicked (it) a lot! It did actually bend back and we managed to lower the noise so I could hear Martin a bit more.”
On the final day Tanak did not hold back bouncing off the banks in the PowerStage five or six times “It was raining quite heavily at the beginning, the grip was low and I had to get some support from the roadside” securing a maximum points score and extending his lead in the Drivers’ championship.
In Meeke’s battle with Thierry Neuville he could tell it was “slipping away” when he dropped 4.4 seconds, finishing fourth.
Fourth place for Kris Meeke in the Toyota Yaris.
Neuville strategy was to be quick straight from the start chasing early rally leader Meeke until he lost time with a puncture and dropped to third and then found himself down another place when Tanak passed him and Ogier into second so Hyundais were lying 4-5-6. When Meeke lost the lead Neuville was again battling with him over third place.
Early on Saturday Neuville secured third place again and set about catching Ogier which he achieved and held through to the finish.
In the second Hyundai Andreas Mikkelsen finished 6th after some visibility issues and could not resist Evans as the Welshman showed his pace on Saturday morning, while Craig Breen had a spectacular accident early on Saturday which with no midday service meant he had to struggle through the rest of the day with a broken windscreen, to finish 8th.
The three championship contenders were lying 2-3-4 (Neuville +1.2s Ogier, +2.5 Tanak) midway through Friday before Ogier scored a scratch time, “It’s good – the first time during the day that we are in front of him (Ott)”.
Ogier then scored a second scratch time and was ahead of Neuville into second place. Things were starting to look up for the reigning Champion but then Tanak made a charge on stage 9 and was up to second place, Ogier now third, a lone Citroen in a sandwich of Toyota (1-2) and Hyundai (4-5-6).
When Meeke lost his lead Ogier was back up to second, by just 0.2 second from equal third placed Neuville and Meeke.
On stage 13 Ogier had a big moment when he hit a bank in the middle of the stage, Neuville was closing in and Ogier unable to resist “I cannot do more – I’m on the limit!” after stage 15 Neuville was up to second 2.3 seconds ahead. Ogier was now focussed on the PowerStage and finished the rally third.
After an off on day one, Esapekka Lappi spent most of the rally sweeping the road.
Elfyn Evans’ fifth place was an encouraging result on his return from back injury and three months away from competition, equalling Tanak with seven stage wins, three of which were in venues close to his home.
His M-Sport teammate Teemu Suninen was withdrawn at the end of Saturday having picked up damage to his car which was too much to be repaired in the time allowed while Pontus Tidemand continued to learn the car in difficult conditions to finish 7th.
In R5 Kalle Rovenpera secured the WRC2 Pro title in his Skoda Fabia Evo and won the R5 category having led the class after all but three of the 21 stages.
Petter Solberg took the initial lead at the opening Oulton Park stage and Rovanpera then led until he punctured in heavy rain on the final forest stage of Friday. His Skoda teammate Jan Kopecky held the lead until the start of Saturday when Rovanpera was back in front.
Hayden Paddon was back in the WRC for the first time in 2019.
The WRC2 Amateur category was won by Petter ahead of Tom Cave and championship leader Pierre-Louis Loubet. As Petter and codriver Phil Mills said farewell to competitive rallying, Petter’s son Oliver made his WRC debut and scored two fastest times in R5 and two in WRC2.
All three championship contenders in the Junior category led the rally during the first day. Dennis Radstrom taking the initial lead until he lost a wheel. A close battle between Jan Solans and Tom Kristensson then ensued through the rest of Friday until Solans retook the lead. Kristensson then punctured losing three minutes and the pressure was off Solans.
At the post-event press conference Tanak said, “I’m happy. It’s been an intense weekend, competition-wise… I made a small mistake in the very first stage… every stage had gaps really small and to make any time back was difficult. I made no more mistakes and came back slowly, slowly.”
New JWRC champion Jan Solans.
Andreas Mikkelsen, Anders Jaeger, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
Jan Kopecky tours through a Welsh village in his Skoda Fabia R5.
WRC stars mix with some local Liverpool legends, the Beatles.
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Ogier then scored a second scratch time and was ahead of Neuville into second place. Things were starting to look up for the reigning Champion but then Tanak made a charge on stage 9 and was up to second place, Ogier now third, a lone Citroen in a sandwich of Toyota (1-2) and Hyundai (4-5-6).
When Meeke lost his lead Ogier was back up to second, by just 0.2 second from equal third placed Neuville and Meeke.
On stage 13 Ogier had a big moment when he hit a bank in the middle of the stage, Neuville was closing in and Ogier unable to resist “I cannot do more – I’m on the limit!” after stage 15 Neuville was up to second 2.3 seconds ahead. Ogier was now focussed on the PowerStage and finished the rally third.
