2019 Rallye Deutschland

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led both the drivers' and co-drivers' championships with a twenty-two-point 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 twenty-four-point lead over Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT.[7]

In the World Rally Championship-2 Pro standings, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen held a thirty-eight-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 led M-Sport Ford WRT by three points, with Citroën Total sixty-one points behind in third.[8]

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 crew and Nikolay Gryazin and Yaroslav Fedorov crew tied in second.[8]

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 and privateer entries not registered to score points in any championship. A total of fifty-five entries were received, with eleven crews entered with World Rally Cars and nineteen entered the World Rally Championship-2. Four crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.

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
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
17	Takamoto Katsuta	Daniel Barritt	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Toyota Yaris WRC	M
44	Gus Greensmith	Elliott Edmondson	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta 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
22	Mads Østberg	Torstein Eriksen	Citroën Total[lower-alpha 1]	Citroën C3 R5	M
23	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
24	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	M
World Rally Championship-2 entries
41	Nikolay Gryazin	Yaroslav Fedorov	Nikolay Gryazin[lower-alpha 2]	Škoda Fabia R5	M
43	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciej Szczepaniak	Kajetan Kajetanowicz[lower-alpha 3]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
45	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	Fabio Andolfi[lower-alpha 4]	Škoda Fabia R5	P
46	Rhys Yates	James Morgan	Rhys Yates	Škoda Fabia R5	P
47	Adrien Fourmaux	Renaud Jamoul	Adrien Fourmaux[lower-alpha 5]	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	M
48	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	Simone Tempestini[lower-alpha 6]	Hyundai i20 R5	P
49	Guillaume De Mevius	Martijn Wydaeghe	Guillaume De Mevius[lower-alpha 7]	Citroën C3 R5	M
50	Nicolas Ciamin	Yannick Roche	Nicolas Ciamin[lower-alpha 8]	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
51	Sébastien Bedoret	Thomas Walbrecq	Sébastien Bedoret	Škoda Fabia R5	M
52	"Pedro"[lower-alpha 9]	Emanuele Baldaccini	"Pedro"	Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II	P
53	Stéphane Lefebvre	Thomas Dubois	Stéphane Lefebvre	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	P
54	Marijan Griebel	Pirmin Winklhofer	Marijan Griebel	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	M
55	Fabian Kreim	Tobias Braun	Fabian Kreim[lower-alpha 10]	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	P
56	Dominik Dinkel	Christina Fürst	Dominik Dinkel[lower-alpha 11]	Hyundai i20 R5	P
57	Sebastian Schwinn	Felix Griebel	Sebastian Schwinn	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	M
Other Major Entries
72	Kris Princen	Peter Kaspers	Kris Princen	Citroën DS3 WRC	M
73	Stéphane Sarrazin	Jacques-Julien Renucci	Stéphane Sarrazin	Hyundai i20 R5	P
Source:[9]

The competitive distance was increased from the 2018 event, while the liaison sections were shortened. The second leg features with a new format, with a pair of stages run twice in the morning and another pair run twice in the afternoon.[10] This differs from the traditional format where all stages are run once before the second pass in the afternoon.

All dates and times are CEST (UTC+2).

The M-Sport Ford WRT crew of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were expected to return, having been forced to miss Rally Finland when Evans was injured in a pre-event testing crash. However, Evans' recovery time was subsequently extended, forcing him to miss Rallye Deutschland as well.[11]

Ott Tänak held a narrow lead ahead of title rival Thierry Neuville going to the second leg.[12] Teemu Suninen retired from Friday with mechanical problems.[13] In Saturday afternoon, Tänak's two title rivals Neuville and Sébastien Ogier both suffered a puncture, which gave Toyota a dramatic 1-2-3.[14] Eventually, three Toyotas came back safely to complete the first 1-2-3 finish in WRC since 2015 Rallye Deutschland.[5]

Kalle Rovanperä led the category with a 20-second margin going into Saturday, but the young Finn had a nightmare morning on Saturday, when he slid into the ditch twice.[15] Kalle's mistakes handed his lead to his teammate Jan Kopecký.[16] Eventually, he won his first Pro victory.[6]

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

Stéphane Lefebvre held off fellow Frenchman Nicolas Ciamin until he crashed out his Polo during SS9. Unfortunately, Ciamin also crashed out in the following stage, which inherited the lead to local driver Fabian Kreim and handed him a fantastic home win.[16][6]

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