The 2019 Rally de Portugal (also known as the Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2019) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 30 May and 2 June 2019.[2] It marked the fifty-third running of Rally de Portugal, and was the seventh round of the 2019 World Rally Championship, World Rally Championship-2 and the newly created WRC-2 Pro class. The rally was also part of the Portuguese national championship and Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica. The 2019 event was based in Matosinhos in Porto and consisted of twenty special stages totalling 311.47 km (193.54 mi) competitive kilometres.
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, Portuguese national championship, Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of sixty-one entries were received, with twelve crews entered with World Rally Cars and twenty-seven entered the World Rally Championship-2. Four crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.
Hyundai Motorsport had initially planned to enter Andreas Mikkelsen for the rally but he was dropped in favour of Sébastien Loeb, due to Mikkelsen's inconsistent form on gravel.[13] However, Loeb's rally was conceded almost sixteen minutes as his fuel system failed. So was his teammate Dani Sordo, who grabbed an early lead until the similar issue happened to him.[14] Following Hyundai's double disasters, Toyota managed to end the day with an 1-2-3.[15]Teemu Suninen was the only driver can match Yaris' pace, but a brake failure pushed the Finn down to sixth. Teammate Elfyn Evans hit trouble as well. The Welshman lost almost four minutes when his Fiesta stopped with an electrical problem, which raised heavy dust when went back on the road. The dust affected greatly on Esapekka Lappi, who suffered a puncture early before, but the time he loss was later credited back to him.
On day two, rally leader Ott Tänak hit a damper issue and slashed his lead to just 4.3 seconds. Teammate Jari-Matti Latvala suffered the same problem, but he was unable to finish the rally, so Rally2 for the Finn. A double dose of tactics by Thierry Neuville's Hyundai team boosted him to third, less than ten seconds off the lead. Gus Greensmith had to retire from the day as he crashed his Fiesta into a ditch.[16]
Eventually, Tänak secured a back-to-back victory, while the final day saw four major retirements.[6]Esapekka Lappi was running fifth until he hit a bank and broke the rear left suspension.[17]Kris Meeke spun out second place to his rival before he retired as he crashed into a tree. Gus Greensmith's WRC debut ended up with a crash in the final Fafe stage. Sébastien Loeb was another late casualty, retiring his i20 after hitting a bank in the same stage despite the fact that he had crossed the finishing line.
Škoda Motorsport débuted a new-generation Fabia R5, the Škoda Fabia R5 Evo, driven by drivers Jan Kopecký and Kalle Rovanperä. Rovanperä led the category comfortably until a puncture lost his lead to Kopecký. Mads Østberg was unable to finish the leg as he suffered several issues including brake problems, damaged suspension and puncture.[19] In leg two, Rovanperä recaptured the lead as the Škoda Fabia R5 Evo's bonnet of Kopecký broke free from its fastenings after a heavy landing from a jump. Lukasz Pieniazek crashed into a tree and forced to retire from the day.[20] In the end, Rovanperä claimed the victory as well as moving up to the top of the class standings.[7]
