The 2019 Rally Australia (also known as Kennards Hire Rally Australia 2019) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was scheduled to be held over four days between 14 and 17 November 2019. The event was cancelled because of an ongoing bushfire emergency in the area. The event was to mark the twenty-eighth running of Rally Australia and was the final round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, WRC-2 Pro class and World Rally Championship-2. The 2019 event would have been based in Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, and contested over twenty-five special stages with a total a competitive distance of . Rally Australia will not be featured in the 2020 championship.
Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila were the defending rally winners. Their team, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, were the defending manufacturers' winners. Alberto Heller and José Diaz were the defending rally winners in the World Rally Championship-2 category, but did not participate in the event.
As a result of the rally's cancellation, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT became the manufacturers' champions, while Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais won the drivers' and co-drivers' titles respectively in the WRC-2 class.
Background Championship standings prior to the event Newly crowned champions Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led the both drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a thirty-six-point ahead of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul. Defending world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were third, a further ten points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held an eighteen-point lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.
In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, newly crowned champions Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen led by sixty-one points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen were second, with Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson further eight points behind in third. In the manufacturers' championship, manufacturers' champion Škoda Motorsport led M-Sport Ford WRT by seventy-four points, with Citroën Total over a hundred points behind in third.
In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by three points respectively. Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak were second, while Benito Guerra were third in the drivers' standings and Yaroslav Fedorov in the co-drivers' standings.
Entry list The following crews were due to entered into the rally. The event was scheduled to 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-six entries were received, with twelve crews were scheduled to enter with World Rally Cars and three were scheduled to enter the World Rally Championship-2. This was later reduced to eleven World Rally Cars when Citroën withdrew a planned entry for Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen.
No. Driver Co-driver Entrant Car Tyre World Rally Car entries 1 Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia Citroën Total WRT Citroën C3 WRC 3 Teemu Suninen Jarmo Lehtinen M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC 4 Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm Citroën Total WRT Citroën C3 WRC 5 Kris Meeke Sebastian Marshall Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC 6 Dani Sordo Carlos del Barrio Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 8 Ott Tänak Martin Järveoja Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC 10 Jari-Matti Latvala Miikka Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC 11 Thierry Neuville Nicolas Gilsoul Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 18 Craig Breen Paul Nagle Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 20 Hayden Paddon John Kennard M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC 33 Elfyn Evans Scott Martin M-Sport Ford WRT Ford Fiesta WRC World Rally Championship-2 entries 41 Pierre-Louis Loubet Vincent Landais Pierre-Louis Loubet Škoda Fabia R5 42 Benito Guerra Daniel Cué Benito Guerra Škoda Fabia R5 45 Gaurav Gill Glenn Macneall Gaurav Gill Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II Source:
Route Only five stages from the 2018 event were scheduled to return to the 2019 itinerary. Two of these were due to run in opposite direction to the 2018 rally.
Planned itinerary All dates and times are AEDT (UTC+11). Date Time No. Stage name Distance 14 November 8:00 — Eastbank [Shakedown] 5.09 km Leg 1 — 125.88 km 14 November 16:30 SS1 Destination NSW SSS19 1 1.33 km 16:40 SS2 Destination NSW SSS19 2 1.33 km 15 November 9:00 SS3 Coldwater19 1 16.78 km 9:48 SS4 Sherwood 1 26.68 km 10:51 SS5 Kookaburra Rd 1 16.82 km 13:36 SS6 Coldwater19 2 16.78 km 14:24 SS7 Sherwood 2 26.68 km 15:27 SS8 Kookaburra Rd 2 16.82 km 17:00 SS9 Destination NSW SSS19 3 1.33 km 17:10 SS10 Destination NSW SSS19 4 1.33 km Leg 2 — 116.99 km 16 November 8:33 SS11 Northbank Reverse 1 8.00 km 9:12 SS12 Utungun Reverse 1 7.54 km 10:08 SS13 Argents Hill Reverse 1 13.13 km 10:51 SS14 Welshs Creek Reverse 1 28.83 km 12:14 SS15 Raleigh 1.99 km 15:08 SS16 Argents Hill Reverse 2 13.13 km 16:00 SS17 Welshs Creek Reverse 2 28.83 km 17:13 SS18 Northbank Reverse 2 8.00 km 17:52 SS19 Utungun Reverse 2 7.54 km Leg 3 — 81.66 km 17 November 7:03 SS20 Mount Coramba 1 19.05 km 7:47 SS21 Lower Bucca 1 11.47 km 8:38 SS22 Wedding Bells19 1 10.31 km 11:06 SS23 Mount Coramba 2 19.05 km 11:50 SS24 Lower Bucca 2 11.47 km 13:08 SS25 Wedding Bells19 2 [Power Stage] 10.31 km Source:
Bushfire emergency
In the week before the rally, the New South Wales Mid North Coast region was devastated by unprecedented bushfires. Organisers of the rally announced plans to run the event over a shortened route if conditions deteriorated further, while organisers of the Australian Rally Championship — of which Rally Australia was planned to be the final round — cancelled the series' involvement in the rally. A revised itinerary featuring of competitive stages was submitted to the FIA for approval. However, the rally was cancelled eventually.
Report World Rally Cars Championship standings Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions. Drivers' championships Co-drivers' championships Manufacturers' championshipsMoveDriverPointsMoveCo-driverPointsMoveManufacturerPoints 1 Ott Tänak 263 Martin Järveoja 263 Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT 380 2 Thierry Neuville 227 Nicolas Gilsoul 227 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 362 3 Sébastien Ogier 217 Julien Ingrassia 217 Citroën Total WRT 284 4 Andreas Mikkelsen 102 Anders Jæger-Amland 102 M-Sport Ford WRT 218 5 Elfyn Evans 102 Scott Martin 102
World Rally Championship-2 Pro Championship standings Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions. Drivers' championships Co-drivers' championships Manufacturers' championshipsMoveDriverPointsMoveCo-driverPointsMoveManufacturerPoints 1 Kalle Rovanperä 206 Jonne Halttunen 206 Škoda Motorsport 333 2 Mads Østberg 145 Torstein Eriksen 145 M-Sport Ford WRT 259 3 Gus Greensmith 137 Elliott Edmondson 137 Citroën Total 145 4 Jan Kopecký 115 Pavel Dresler 79 5 Łukasz Pieniążek 74 Kamil Heller 62
World Rally Championship-2 Championship standings Bold text indicates 2019 World Champions. Drivers' championships Co-drivers' championshipsMoveDriverPointsMoveCo-driverPoints 1 Pierre-Louis Loubet 91 Vincent Landais 91 2 Kajetan Kajetanowicz 88 Maciej Szczepaniak 88 3 Benito Guerra 75 Yaroslav Fedorov 73 4 Nikolay Gryazin 73 Jaime Zapata 69 5 Fabio Andolfi 64 Jonas Andersson 62
Notes
References
External links
2019 Rally Australia in e-wrc website The official website of the World Rally Championship