Jari and Mikko take third after challenging Rally Finland
Our Customer Racing Junior Driver Jari Huttunen, and his co-driver Mikko Lukka, scored a podium finish in their home event, Rally Finland, despite a pre-event crash hampering their preparations.
The 19-stage rally gave us a valuable opportunity to gather experience of our new i20 N Rally2 car on high-speed gravel roads with Jari/Mikko joined by Oliver Solberg and his new co-driver Craig Drew on duty.
Home recovery
It was a turbulent build-up to the event for the flying Finns as they crashed in testing early in the week. The damage required substantial work to get the car ready in time for Friday morning shakedown. Not only were they able to compete, but the duo scored a fastest time on Saturday evening’s Harju stage.
“I’d like to say thanks to the whole team for their support in difficult circumstances,” said Jari. “The pre-event crash was far from ideal preparation and meant that we were on the back foot from the start. We still gave our home event as much as we could.”
Missing the target
Oliver and co-driver Craig started Rally Finland with the aim of gathering experience in their first participation in the legendary event. Unfortunately, they crashed out of the rally on Saturday morning, rolling their car on the opening stage of the day, Kakaristo-Hassi.
“I am so sorry and disappointed with what happened, especially after we had such a positive result on Arctic Rally Finland at the start of the season,” said Oliver. “I came to this event with the target of gaining experience and, sadly, I was unable to achieve that.”
Reflecting on the situation, our Team Principal Andrea said: “We take away a podium, but it was not really a representative weekend for our two WRC2 crews. Oliver had never done this rally before, and it was his first event with a new co-driver, while Jari had a huge crash in the build-up to the event. When something like that happens, it is then difficult to be in the right mental state, to extract the final tenths-of-a-second, which we know is the level needed in this event.”
Final Overall Classification WRC2 –Rally Finland
1 T. Suninen / M. Markkula (Volkswagen Polo GTI2:29:05.8
2 M. Østberg / T. Eriksen (Citroën C3 R5)+15.7
3 J. Huttunen / M. Lukka (Hyundai i20 N Rally2)+1:51.9
4 M. Prokop / M. Ernst (Ford Fiesta R5 MkII)+10:14.1
5 G. Linnemäe / J. Morgan (Škoda Fabia Evo)+10:19.2
6 N. Gryazin / K. Aleksandrov (Volkswagen Polo GTI)+1:01:41.0
2021 WRC2 Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 10
1 A. Mikkelsen 126
2 M. Østberg 118
3 M. Bulacia 104
4 J. Huttunen 78
5 N. Gryazin 77
6 T. Suninen 71
7 E. Lappi 59
8 M. Prokop 51
9 A. Fourmaux 48
10 G. Linnamae 36
2021 FIA WRC2 Championship for Teams’ Standings
After round 10
1 Toksport WRT 211
2 Movisport 162
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 146
4 Hyundai Motorsport N 55
5 Sainteloc Junior Team 27
All results remain subject to official FIA confirm
