The following crews entered into the rally. The event was open 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 sixty-three entries were received, with eleven crews entered with World Rally Cars and twenty-three entered the World Rally Championship-2. Four crews were nominated to score points in the Pro class.
The second stage of the brand new event was interrupted due to the safety reason, which affected Thierry Neuville, who was first on the road. As a result, the Belgian was awarded a notional time.[9] In the afternoon loop, Ott Tänak stormed away and held a 22.4-second lead into Saturday.[10]
The second leg was quite dramatic. Kris Meeke rolled his Yaris in the opening stage of the day. He managed to carry on, but valuable time has been lost, which dropped him down to tenth overall at the end of the day.[11] One stage later, championship leader Neuville crashed violently after a right-hand blind crest, badly damaging his i20. Luckily, the Belgian and his co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul were fine, but they were unable to continue the rally.[12] The battle for the final podium was on fire until Jari-Matti Latvala hit a rock in the final test and broke his Toyota's driveshaft, which elevated nine-time world champion Sébastien Loeb to third, just 5.1 seconds off defending world champion Sébastien Ogier, who was half a minute behind rally leader Tänak.[13] Eventually, Tänak took the rally victory, following by Ogier, who managed to keep Loeb behind, in second.[3]
Kalle Rovanperä led in the Pro category with a slender 2.4-second advantage after an intense battle with Mads Østberg.[14] The eighteen-year-old Finn extended his lead over Østberg as the Norwegian lost 30 seconds when fluid leaked out of the rear brakes of his C3 R5.[15] Eventually, Rovanperä successfully took his first Pro victory of the season.[4]
Special stages
Results in bold denote first in the RC2 class, the class which both the WRC-2 Pro and WRC-2 championships run to.
Local hero Alberto Heller was comfortable in the lead, but his brother Pedro Heller had to retire from the day as he rolled his Fiesta in the opening stage.[14] However, Alberto was surpassed by Takamoto Katsuta in final stage of the second leg.[15] Worse still, the Chilean rolled his Ford Fiesta into retirement in the second to last stage. Eventually, Katsuta brought car home to take his first victory of the season.[4]
^ abThe stage was interrupted following Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul's accident. As a result, WRC-2 Pro crews were given 15:00.0 to their times; WRC-2 crews were given 15:15.0; private crews received 16:15.0.[12]
