THE SWITCHBACK

Two rounds into the 2019 World Rally Championship and we’ve already seen two different winners and some surprise packages.

 

The first observation of the season so far would be, Ott Tanak is a bit fast. Toyota’s Estonian finished 2018 by getting himself into the title fight and he’s started strongly in 2019. Tanak took victory in Sweden by almost a minute over his former team-mate Esapekka Lappi, as well as adding the power stage win. Tanak also took to the third step of the podium in Monte Carlo, snatching two power stage point as well, helping him to a seven-point championship lead.

 

Sebastien Ogier’s title defence started in mixed style. A win around his home town of Gap for the Monte Carlo curtain-raiser was followed up by a 29th place finish in Sweden after burying his Citroen in a snow bank early on day one and retiring from the first day. Second and fourth power stage finishes in Monte and Sweden respectively boost the Frenchman’s points tally.

 

The historical challenger for Ogier’s crown, Thierry Neuville missed out on a victory to start the season, but a second place finish in Monte Carlo and a third-place finish in Sweden teamed with third and second place finishes in the power stages puts Hyundai’s Belgian nine points clear of Ogier in second. Only finishing 2.2 seconds behind local boy Ogier in Monte and keeping his car on the road where his rival failed in Sweden are positive early signs for Neuville.

 

One of the early surprises is the consistency of Kris Meeke. The Brit was dropped by Citroen in 2018 after a string of DNFs, however, two sixth-place finishes to start the season are a show of a more solid, reliable Meeke in his new Yaris. The 2009 IRC champion won the Monte power stage and sits 10 points behind Ogier in fourth.

 

Esapekka Lappi sits fifth, solely based on his second place finish in Sweden. Engine failure in Monte Carlo saw him retire from the event, but a strong showing on the snow and ice in round two to hold off Neuville give Lappi a good base to build off in his new venture with French manufacturer Citroen. Citroen’s two-car operation left Lappi as their only hope in Sweden, so the French brand sits third (second last) in the constructors’ standings.

 

Toyota’s other challenger, Jari-Matti Latvala, hit similar trouble to Ogier in Sweden. The Fin buried his car in a snow bank, dropping 24 minutes but by choosing to run under Rally2 regulations, his time drop was reduced to 10 minutes. His fifth-place finish in Monte Carlo leaves him in ninth, and Toyota leads the constructors' standings.

 

Hyundai’s other drivers suffered mixed fortunes. Full-time competitor Andreas Mikkelsen crashed out on stage 10 in Monte but took fourth in Sweden, however, he sits a lowly eighth. Part-time number three driver Sebastien Loeb faired the better of the two. Fourth in Monte and a seventh in Sweden was not a bad start to his Hyundai spell given they were only his fourth and fifth starts in new gen WRC machinery and his first in something other than a Citroen in 19 years. However, Loeb will share the third car with Dani Sordo so neither he or his Spanish team-mate will be in the fight at the business end of the table come November.

 

M-Sport Ford are stone dead last in the constructors' standings, 17 points adrift of Citroen. Team-leader Elfyn Evans is the top scorer for the Cumbrian outfit, with a 13 point haul in Sweden giving him seventh in the championship after he crashed out of the opening rally. Young Fin and Evans’ full-time team-mate Teemu Suninen only has one point to his name, a power stage point in Monte all he has to show so far, but a promising start to Rally Sweden saw the 25-year-old lead a WRC event for the first time until the smallest of errors saw him find a snow bank. 2017 WRC2 champion Pontus Tidemand competed in the first two rounds for M-Sport. A lowly 20th place finish in Monte was expected in his first outing in WRC machinery. He profited from the mistakes of some of the big boys to take his first points with an eighth-place finish in Sweden. Tidemand’s future involvement with the team is yet to be seen but the points won’t hurt his chances of another opportunity.

 

In another surprise, M-Sport owes six of their points the performance of Brit Gus Greensmith, who claimed seventh in Monte on his way to WRC2-Pro victory in the principality. Greensmith will get a shot at driving the fully fledged M-Sport Fiesta later this year.

 

While not making a dent on the leaderboard, two-time world champion and fan favourite Marcus Gronholm returned to the championship in Sweden, driving a Toyota Yaris prepared by the factory team. Gronholm had incidents on every stage in the opening day but settled into the rally as it progressed. He lacked the pace needed to claim any points and ruled out any involvement in the future but his return was a wonderful flashback to the 2000s, where Gronholm endeared himself to rally fans across the world, his post-stage interviews a particular highlight.

 

That’s the round-up of the opening two rallies of 2019. For a quick review of the WRC2-Pro and WRC2 categories, click here.