2019 Tour de Corse

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led the both drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a four-point ahead of six-time world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were third, a further six points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, defending manufacturers' champions Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT held an eight-point lead over Citroën Total WRT.[9]

In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson held a three-point lead ahead of Łukasz Pieniążek and Kamil Heller in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were third, one point further back. In the manufacturers' championship, M-Sport Ford WRT led Škoda Motorsport by forty-one points, with eleven-point-behind Citroën Total in third.[10]

In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by fifteen points respectively. Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud crew and Benito Guerra and Jaime Zapata crew shared second.[10]

In the Junior-World Rally Championship standings, Tom Kristensson and Henrik Appelskog led Roland Poom and Ken Järveoja by eight points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with Jan Solans and Mauro Barreriro two points further behind in third in their own standings. In the Nations' standings, Sweden were first, eight points cleared of Estonia, with Spain three points further behind in third.[11]

The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and WRC-2 Pro, the FIA R-GT Cup, the Junior World Rally Championship, and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. Ninety-six crews were registered to compete, including ten competing with World Rally Cars and eighteen in World Rally Championship-2. Two of these crews are nominate to score points in the WRC-2 Pro class. A further thirteen entries were received for the Junior World Rally Championship. The total of ninety-six crews made for the largest entry list for a World Rally Championship event since the 2015 edition of the Tour de Corse, when a total of 123 crews were registered to the event.[12]

No.	Driver	Co-Driver	Entrant	Car	Tyre
World Rally Car entries
1	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	M
3	Teemu Suninen	Marko Salminen	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
4	Esapekka Lappi	Janne Ferm	Citroën Total WRT	Citroën C3 WRC	M
5	Kris Meeke	Sebastian Marshall	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
6	Dani Sordo	Carlos del Barrio	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
8	Ott Tänak	Martin Järveoja	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
10	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
11	Thierry Neuville	Nicolas Gilsoul	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
19	Sébastien Loeb	Daniel Elena	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
33	Elfyn Evans	Scott Martin	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
World Rally Championship-2 Pro entries
21	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport[lower-alpha 1]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
22	Łukasz Pieniążek	Kamil Heller	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
23	Ole Christian Veiby	Jonas Andersson	Ole Christian Veiby[lower-alpha 2]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
24	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	Yoann Bonato[lower-alpha 3]	Citroën C3 R5	M
25	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	Adrien Fourmaux[lower-alpha 4]	Ford Fiesta R5	M
26	Rhys Yates	James Morgan	Rhys Yates	Škoda Fabia R5	P
27	Nicolas Ciamin	Yannick Roche	Nicolas Ciamin[lower-alpha 5]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
28	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	Nikolay Gryazin[lower-alpha 6]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
29	Guillaume De Mevius	Martijn Wydaeghe	Guillaume De Mevius[lower-alpha 7]	Citroën C3 R5	M
30	"Pedro"[lower-alpha 8]	Emanuele Baldaccini	"Pedro"	Ford Fiesta R5	P
31	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Takamoto Katsuta[lower-alpha 9]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
32	Eric Camilli	Francios-Xavier Buresi	Eric Camilli	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
34	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	Pierre-Louis Loubet[lower-alpha 10]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
35	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Kajetan Kajetanowicz[lower-alpha 11]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
36	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	Simone Tempestini[lower-alpha 12]	Hyundai i20 R5	P
37	Nil Solans	Marc Martí	Nil Solans[lower-alpha 13]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
38	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	Fabio Andolfi[lower-alpha 14]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
39	Sebastien Bedoret	Thomas Walbrecq	Sebastien Bedoret[lower-alpha 15]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
Junior World Rally Championship entries
71	Tom Kristensson	Henrik Appelskog	Tom Kristensson	Ford Fiesta R2	P
72	Roland Poom	Ken Järveoja	Roland Poom	Ford Fiesta R2	P
73	Jan Solans	Mauro Barreriro	Rally Team Spain	Ford Fiesta R2	P
74	Dennis Rådström	Johan Johansson	Dennis Rådström	Ford Fiesta R2	P
75	Tom Williams	Phil Hall	Tom Williams	Ford Fiesta R2	P
76	Mārtiņš Sesks	Krišjānis Caune	LMT Autosporta Akadēmija	Ford Fiesta R2	P
77	Sean Johnston	Alex Kihurani	Sean Johnston	Ford Fiesta R2	P
78	Enrico Oldrati	Elia De Guio	Enrico Oldrati	Ford Fiesta R2	P
79	Ken Torn	Kuldar Sikk	OT Racing	Ford Fiesta R2	P
80	Fabrizio Zaldívar	Fernando Mussano	Fabrizio Zaldívar	Ford Fiesta R2	P
81	Julius Tannert	Jürgen Heigl	ADAC Sachsen	Ford Fiesta R2	P
82	Nico Knacker	Tobias Braun	ADAC Weiser-Ems	Ford Fiesta R2	P
83	Raul Baidu	Gabriel Lazar	Raul Baidu	Ford Fiesta R2	P
Other major entries
40	Jean-Charles Beaubelique	Julien Pesenti	Jean-Charles Beaubelique	Citroën DS3 WRC	M
41	Armando Pereira	Rémi Tutélaire	Armando Pereira	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	M
42	Alain Vauthier	Gilbert Dini	Alain Vauthier	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	M
43	Robert Simonetti	Célia Simonetti	Robert Simonetti	Citroën DS3 WRC	M
Source:[13]

The 2019 edition of Tour de Corse features a new route, with up to three-quarters of the route being revised from the 2018 edition.[14]

All dates and times are CET (UTC+1) from 28 to 30 March 2019 and CEST (UTC+2) on 31 March 2019.

The very first stage of the first pure tarmac rally of the season was dramatic. Kris Meeke suffered a puncture, while four-time winner Sébastien Loeb slid wide and damaged his suspension. Defending world champion Sébastien Ogier nosed his C3 into the bank and lost about ten seconds.[15] In the afternoon loop, a stage drama happened between Meeke and rally leader Elfyn Evans. Evans caught up to Meeke and got stuck behind him, which saw Evans set a stage time eleven seconds slower than Meeke's Toyota teammate Ott Tänak. Evans dropped behind Thierry Neuville, who was 5.3 seconds behind Tänak, on the leaderboard. Eventually, the stewards decided to credit Evans with the same time as the Estonian, which restored him to first with an unchanged advantage after Leg 1.[16]

Saturday appeared to be a disaster for the overnight leader Tänak, who also suffered a puncture and dropped down to sixth, which handled the lead back to Evans. But the Welshman's lead was short-lived as Neuville charged himself to the top spot in the final stage of the day with a-4.5-second lead.[17] Despite Evans astonishingly fought back, an extremely unfortunate right-front puncture happened to the Welshman at where six kilometers from the finish line, which dropped him straightly down to third, over twenty seconds behind defending world champion Sébastien Ogier. Following Evans' puncture, Neuville snatched his first victory of the season.[6]

Kalle Rovanperä led the WRC-2 Pro category as Łukasz Pieniążek suffered an early puncture.[18] However, Rovanperä was forced to retire from the event as he crashed his Fabia out in SS9. In SS12, Pieniążek also retired from the day as he went off the road.[19] But he managed to come back on the final day and took the win.[7]

Results in bold denote first in the RC2 class, the class which both the WRC-2 Pro and WRC-2 championships run to.

In the WRC-2 category, local driver Eric Camilli dominated the day in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 as he won all six stages.[18] However, on Saturday, an early puncture dropped him behind Fabio Andolfi, who led the category after Yoann Bonato's retirement. Wore still, although he reduced the gap to just 5.4 seconds, he still forced to retire from the rally as his Polo was burnt out.[19] Eventually, Fabio Andolfi won the category after he overcame a transmission issue.[7]

Results in bold denote first in the RC2 class, the class which both the WRC-2 Pro and WRC-2 championships run to.

Jan Solans started rally impressively, with over six seconds faster than any driver of the class in the first stage. However, a puncture cost him over two minutes and handled championship leader Tom Kristensson a comfortable lead.[21] In the end, Julius Tannert put the rally into his pocket after an intense fight with championship leader Kristensson.[8]