Battle on for Constructors’ title as WRC moves down under for its last leg

David Bodapati November 8, 2019

978 2 minutes read

The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship season reaches its conclusion on the gravel roads of Rally Australia (November 14-17), where the battle for the manufacturers’ title goes down to the wire.

Coffs Harbour (Australia), 8 Nov 2019: Previously based in Perth, Rally Australia moved to New South Wales ten years ago and has been now located in Coffs Harbour for most of this decade, since 2011. The surrounding area provides an exciting mix of gravel stages, combining rugged and dusty forest tracks in the bush with wider and faster roads through the open countryside.

After Ott Tänak and navigator Martin Järveoja claimed their maiden drivers’ and co-drivers’ title last time out on Rally de España, all eyes are now on the fight for the manufacturers’ crown. The battle will be raging between Hyundai, seeking to win its first FIA WRC title with an 18-point advantage, against the defending Champion, Toyota.

While the Japanese manufacturer relies on its regular trio of drivers featuring Tänak, Kris Meeke and Jari-Matti Latvala, the South-Korean squad has once again tweaked its line-up, with Thierry Neuville joined by Dani Sordo and Craig Breen, although 2016 Rally Australia winner Andreas Mikkelsen had been initially announced on the entry list. At M-Sport Ford, New Zealander Hayden Paddon enters with a third Ford Fiesta, alongside Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen, on an event on which he finished second in 2018 and third in 2017.

In the drivers’ competition, the fight for the runner-up spot remains alive between Rally Spain’s winner Neuville and six-time WRC Champion Ogier, separated by just 10 points in second and third respectively. There’s also a thrilling battle ahead between the drivers in fourth to ninth position, covered by only 13 points. With 30 points available in Australia, the top 10 could be looking very different at the end of WRC’s grand finale!

In the support championships, Škoda Motorsport has won it all in the FIA WRC 2 Pro category this season, by securing the drivers’ title with their factory crew of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Haltunnen on Rally GB, as well as the manufacturers’ title last time out in Spain. In Australia, the focus switches to the FIA WRC 2 class, where the champion is still to be decided between Pierre-Louis Loubet – the winner in Portugal and Italy earlier this year – and Benito Guerra, who started his campaign with a victory on home soil in Mexico in March. Both contenders will be driving a Škoda Fabia R5, with the Frenchman leading his Mexican rival by 16 points.

THE 2019 ROUTE

Changes for the 2019 event include an earlier start to the competitive action in the form of two runs over a revamped Super Special stage near the Coffs Harbour jetty on Thursday afternoon. On Friday, the crews will travel north for morning and afternoon loops of the familiar Coldwater and Sherwood tests and the new Kookaburra Road, blending sections from a number of previous stages, while two further passes of the super special will end the event’s longest leg. On Saturday, the action will head south to the flowing farmland tests of Northbank and Utungun, joined by the classic shire roads of the Argents Hill and Welshs Creek stages. Sunday’s repeated loop also features new stages in Mount Coramba and Lower Bucca, before a longer version of the popular Wedding Bells test, which will again serve as the Power Stage and scene for the final podium ceremony.

RALLY DATA