page_title: 2019 World Rally Championship
section_title: Rally Finland
hierarchical_section_title: 2019 World Rally Championship / Season report / Rally Finland
caption_attribution_description: English: Lutakko during Neste Rally Finland in 3rd August 2019. Jyväskylä, Finland.
context_page_description: The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-seventh season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and crews competed in fourteen events for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Crews were free to compete in cars complying with World Rally Car and Group R regulations; however, only Manufacturers competing with World Rally Cars homologated under regulations introduced in 2017 were eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship. The series was once again supported by the World Rally Championship-2 category at every round, which was split into 2 classifications: the World Rally Championship-2 Pro for manufacturer entries and the World Rally Championship-2 for private entries, and by the Junior World Rally Championship at selected events. The World Rally Championship-3 was discontinued in 2018.
context_section_description: After the summer break, the World Rally Championship came to the fastest rally on the calendar. Before the rally began, Elfyn Evans withdrew from the rally due to a back injury. Hayden Paddon was scheduled to come back in a third Ford Fiesta WRC, but a heavy crash during testing forced M-Sport Ford to abandon his returning plan. When the event started, championship leader Ott Tänak was first on the road, but sweeping the road did not slow him down. Eventually, he successfully defended the rally with a power stage win to extend his championship lead to twenty-two points. It was the redemption weekend for tornado Tänak, who won his 200th stage victory during the event as well. Esapekka Lappi found his form back after struggling a lot in the first half of the season, finishing second overall in his home rally. Three-time winner Jari-Matti Latvala was leading the rally, but a driving error punctured his rear-left tyre in a right-hand corner, which dropped him down to third. Teammate Kris Meeke also ran wide at the same corner, but he damaged his rear-left suspension and was unable to continue. Although the Northern Irishman rejoined the rally on the final day, he still stopped again as he hit a rock. Following Meeke's retirement, there was an epic battle for the fourth place including defending world Sébastien Ogier, Andreas Mikkelsen and Craig Breen, who returned to championship in a third Hyundai. By virtue of was consistently fast performance, Mikkelsen stood out the other two, with Ogier in fifth. Breen was given a team order that let his championship contender teammate Thierry Neuville by on the leaderboard to take sixth. Teemu Suninen completed the rally following Breen in eighth after struggling to find pace during the weekend, with WRC-2 Pro youngster Kalle Rovanperä and WRC-2 class winner Nikolay Gryazin rounding out of the top ten. Gus Greensmith was the driver who replaced Paddon, but his rally was ended during SS20 after crashing into a tree.
caption: The service park of Rally Finland in 2019.
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