2019 Rally Finland

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships by three-points ahead of defending world champions Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia. Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul were third, a further three points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT held a forty-four-point lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.[9]

In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen held a thirteen-point lead ahead of Mads Østberg and Torstein Eriksen in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively. Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson were third, another thirteen points further back. In the manufacturers' championship, Škoda Motorsport and M-Sport Ford WRT tied with same points, with Citroën Total sixty-one points behind in third.[10]

In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Benito Guerra and Jaime Zapata led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by eighteen points respectively. Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais were second, following by Ole Christian Veiby and Jonas Andersson in third.[10]

In the Junior-World Rally Championship standings, Jan Solans and Mauro Barreiro led Tom Kristensson and Henrik Appelskog by nine points in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with Dennis Rådström and Johan Johansson six points further behind in third in their own standings. In the Nations' standings, Sweden were first, six points cleared of Spain, with Germany eighteen points further behind in third.[11]

The following crews entered into the rally. The event opened to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2, WRC-2 Pro, Junior World Rally Championship and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of sixty-five entries were received, with eleven crews entered with World Rally Cars and thirteen entered the World Rally Championship-2. Three crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class. A further fourteen entries were received for the Junior World Rally Championship.

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	Jarmo Lehtinen	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
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
18	Jouni Virtanen	Risto Pietiläinen	JanPro	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
33	Gus Greensmith	Elliott Edmondson	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	M
42	Craig Breen	Paul Nagle	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
89	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger-Amland	Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	M
World Rally Championship-2 Pro entries
21	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
23	Eerik Pietarinen	Juhana Raitanen	Škoda Motorsport[lower-alpha 1]	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
24	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
41	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	Pierre-Louis Loubet[lower-alpha 2]	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
43	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Takamoto Katsuta[lower-alpha 3]	Ford Fiesta R5	P
44	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	Nikolay Gryazin[lower-alpha 4]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
45	Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	Henning Solberg[lower-alpha 5]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
46	Paulo Nobre	Gabriel Morales	Paulo Nobre[lower-alpha 6]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
47	Emil Lindholm	Mikael Korhonen	Emil Lindholm[lower-alpha 7]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
48	Johan Kristoffersson	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	Johan Kristoffersson[lower-alpha 8]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
49	Jari Huttunen	Antti Linnaketo	Jari Huttunen[lower-alpha 9]	Hyundai i20 R5	P
50	Tomi Tukiainen	Mikko Pohjanharju	Tomi Tukiainen	Škoda Fabia R5	M
51	Grégoire Munster	Louis Louka	Grégoire Munster	Škoda Fabia R5	P
Junior World Rally Championship entries
71	Jan Solans	Mauro Barreiro	Rally Team Spain	Ford Fiesta R2	P
72	Tom Kristensson	Henrik Appelskog	Tom Kristensson	Ford Fiesta R2	P
73	Dennis Rådström	Johan Johansson	Dennis Rådström	Ford Fiesta R2	P
74	Julius Tannert	Jürgen Heigl	ADAC Sachsen	Ford Fiesta R2	P
75	Roland Poom	Ken Järveoja	Roland Poom	Ford Fiesta R2	P
76	Tom Williams	Phil Hall	Tom Williams	Ford Fiesta R2	P
77	Mārtiņš Sesks	Krišjānis Caune	LMT Autosporta Akadēmija	Ford Fiesta R2	P
78	Raul Badiu	Gabriel Lazăr	Raul Badiu	Ford Fiesta R2	P
79	Enrico Oldrati	Elia De Guio	Enrico Oldrati	Ford Fiesta R2	P
80	Sean Johnston	Alex Kihurani	Sean Johnston	Ford Fiesta R2	P
81	Fabrizio Zaldivar	Fernando Mussano	Fabrizio Zaldivar	Ford Fiesta R2	P
82	Nico Knacker	Michael Wenzel	ADAC Weser-Ems	Ford Fiesta R2	P
83	Sami Pajari	Antti Haapala	Team Flying Finn	Ford Fiesta R2	P
84	Aleksi Röyhkiö	Ville Mannisenmäki	Aleksi Röyhkiö	Ford Fiesta R2	P
Other Major Entries
105	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	Adrien Fourmaux	Ford Fiesta R2	M
Source:[12]

There were no significant changes to the route for the 2019 event outside some slight length reductions to selected stages.[1]

The finishing line of the Ruuhimäki stage, marking as end location of Rally Finland.

All dates and times are EEST (UTC+3).

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were entered by M-Sport Ford WRT, but were later withdrawn when Evans was injured contesting Rally Estonia as part of their pre-event preparations. Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson were withdrawn from the WRC 2-Pro category and re-entered in Evans' and Martin's place.[13] Hayden Paddon and John Kennard were entered into the rally by M-Sport Ford WRT, but they were withdrawn after a heavy crash during testing that caused irreparable damage their car.[14]

It was a drama-free Friday for front runners, with Jari-Matti Latvala took a narrow lead into the second leg.[15] However, the local Finn punctured his rear-left tyre in a right-hand corner, which dropped him down to third. Teammate Kris Meeke also ran into trouble at the same corner, but damage to the rear-left suspension forced the Northern Irishman retired from the day.[16] Despite re-entering the rally on the final day, he still had to retire as he stopped again when he hit a rock. Gus Greensmith's rally ended his rally on SS20 after crashing into a tree.[17]

The rally was easily won by Ott Tänak, who won his tenth rally in his WRC career as well as winning his 200th stage victory during the event.[6]

Defending WRC-2 winner Eerik Pietarinen crashed out at the very first of the day and was unable to continue.[18] Kalle Rovanperä was comfortable in the lead and collected his fourth straight WRC-2 Pro victory.[19][7]

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

Local driver Emil Lindholm led the category before he crashed out in the second stage.[18] Pierre-Louis Loubet led the class until the last stage of leg two, when he misheard a pace note and smashed into a tree.[19] Eventually, Nikolay Gryazin snatched his first victory of the class after a consistent weekend.[7]

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

Raul Badiu heavily crashed his Ford Fiesta R2, suffering two fractured ribs and a concussion. The Romanian was forced to retire from the rally and received medical treatment.[20] Roland Poom and Jürgen Heigl was the two major retirements in the second leg.[21] Dennis Rådström could have taken some good points from the event, but the crash in the penultimate stage means he was thirty-four points off the lead. Compatriot Tom Kristensson took the victory with eight stage victories to retake the championship lead.[8]