Surprise amidst the participants of this year’s Cyprus Rally

44 crews from 20 different countries

Forty-four crews from twenty countries have applied to participate in the 2019 Cyprus Rally, which will take place on the weekend of September 27^th-29^th. This is probably the best list of entries our national race has ever had on the European calendar. This year's Cyprus rally will be the seventh round of the European Championship and the fourth round of the Middle East Championship, as it remains the only event in the world to count in two regional championships of the FIA. Moreover, it will naturally also host the fifth in the local championship.

All eyes are definitely firmly on the first three entries from the ERC, Chris Ingram, Alexey Lukyanuk and Lukasz Habaj, who will go head-to-head for this year's title, with the first two drivers split by just one point! With them, of course, will also be the multi-winner of the Cyprus Rally, Nasser Al Attiyah who is also claiming points in the Middle East Championship. A championship he wants to win for the 14th time, equalling the great Mohammed Bin Sulayem's record. Along with Nasser, four more crews from the Middle East will be running. The big surprise of the entry list is none other than Mikko Hirvonen. The former Subaru and Ford driver in the World Rally Championship returns to Cyprus ten years after his last podium here when he came in second behind Sebastien Loeb. Hirvonen, who will be driving a Ford Fiesta R5, knows our island pretty well, having driven six times, climbing up on the podium twice.

A total of 21 crews will run with the colours of Cyprus, eight of which will claim points in the European Championship. Amidst the Cypriot crews is last year's winners Simo Galatariotis and Antonis Ioannou with their Skoda Fabia R5. Competing with cars from the R5 category will be both Yiagkou / Kyriakou and Psaltis / Chrysostomou. At the same time, we will have high-level battles for European honours in the ERC2 and ERC3 categories, where a total of twelve crews will run, from Cyprus, the Middle East and the rest of Europe.
The 2019 Cyprus Rally proceedings will begin with the qualifying special stage on Friday, September 27, after which the fastest crews will pick their start numbers before making their way to the beachfront of Foinikoudes in Larnaca where the start Ceremony will take place.

It should be mentioned that 42 crews hail from 20 different countries, such as Cyprus, Russia, England, Poland, Qatar, Hungary, Finland, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, France, Turkey, Latvia, Austria, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Kuwait and Jordan

The Golden sponsors for the event are the Ministry of Tourism, Psaltis, ENEOS lubricants and Cablenet. Sponsoring the event are Cavaway Ltd, Jeep, Sparco, Thomason, Sigan and GEPA with the support of The Nicosia, Larnaca and Aglantzia Municipalities, Cyprus Police and the companies NBF Graphic Solutions, Prodata, A2V, UMAMI, Forviotissa, Astra Car Rental, Chateau Status and the Aris Spilion/Kourdalon Sports Club.