Defending FIA European Under 28 Rally Champion Nikolay Gryazin will move to WRC2 for 2019, taking part in nine of the European events on the calendar.
Russian driver Gryazin won the ERC Junior U28 category last year after a season long battle with Chris Ingram and Fabian Kreim in the same Skoda Fabia R5 that he will drive in WRC2 next season.
Although he will miss the season opening Rallye Monte-Carlo next month, Gryazin will take part in the other European WRC2 events in the championship in countries including Sweden, Portugal, Germany and Great Britain.
Other rounds on his WRC2 schedule include France, Italy, Finland, Turkey and Spain with him and co-driver Yaroslav Fedorov also planning several other national events as part of their preparation for the 2019 season.
These include the Sigdalsrally and Finnskog Rally events in Norway and Rally Sarma in Latvia in February, a week before their opening WRC2 round in Sweden.
Gryazin won two outright ERC rounds in 2018 with victories on both Rally Liepāja and PZM Rajd Polski.
