The beginning of August is a very valid date for the WRC to reach one of the high points of the season, since holidays are not allowed. The very fast stages of Rally Finland await the hybrid ‘Rally1’, in one of the most complex and at the same time most attractive scenarios on the calendar. Drivers, teams and machines face very high speed specials in which jumps, crests and gradient changes are a constant. World Cup leader Kalle Rovanperä plays at home.
Scandinavian drivers dominated Rally Finland in its first editions. From 1973, the year in which it became part of the WRC, until 1990, no foreign driver prevailed on the fast Finnish stages. Carlos Sainz finished with this statistic in 1990. Two years later, Didier Auriol followed in his footsteps and more recently, Sébastien Loeb, Sébastien Ogier, Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans have put an end to this dominance. Nonetheless, Hannu Mikkola and Marcus Grönholm remain with the most successful drivers with seven wins. Evans is the current test winner.
In its 71st edition, Rally Finland returns to its traditional summer date, since last year it was held in October due to the coincidence with the Olympics. Continuing with what was seen last year, the promoter has once again carried out a facelift of the route. 50% of the route has been renewed and 10% is unprecedented to give rise to an event with 22 sections and 322.61 kilometers against the clock. The rally starts on Thursday with shakedown in the morning and the ‘Harju’ super special stage in the afternoon.
Friday starts with a double pass through a loop of two stages and culminates with another pass through the ‘Harju’ super special stage. The afternoon loop runs west of Jyväskyä with two other double pass stages to add a total of 124.91 competitive kilometers during the day. The action on Saturday is set around Jämsä, with 150.30 kilometers – almost half the rally – divided into two loops of four stages. On Sunday the rally closes with four sections totaling 43.92 kilometers. The Power Stage takes place on the ‘Ruuhimäki’ stage.
The return of Rally Finland to August means recovering all the essence of the test, since in 2021 the temperatures were colder, the daylight hours were shorter and the rainfall that opened the track was not so damaging. This year this factor is once again important, although Finland’s defining key is getting good confidence with the carsince the tenths in each jump and elevation change are achieved by trust. Riders must choose 28 tires from a set of 24 Scorpion KX WRC SA tires (soft) and 8 Scorpion KX WRC HA tires (hard).
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Zero improvisation of Toyota in its rally. The Japanese firm has its operations center in Finland and two Finnish drivers, so, pending Rally Japan, this is their home round. Kalle Rovanperä is the outstanding leader of the World Cup and competes at homeso you can take risks to get a win in front of your audience. Elfyn Evans was the winner in 2021 and Esapekka Lappi also has the added bonus of competing close to home. Hyundai will try to stand up to Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Oliver Solberg, but it won’t be easy.
For its part, M-Sport will have up to five units of its Ford Puma Rally1 in competition. Craig Breen is spearheading the team and perhaps the only candidate in the structure to fight for the podium, with Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux as a complement and a permanent part of the Cumbrian coach’s line-up. Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet joins them as in recent rallies in his partial program. For its part, the fifth Puma will go to Jari Huttunen, in his debut in the premier class with a ‘Rally1’.
WRC2 leaders are low. Andreas Mikkelsen, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Yohan Rossel and Chris Ingram skipped the suomi appointment, handing over to other drivers. Emil Lindholm competes at home and may be the favoritealways with the permission of a Teemu Suninen who is also in front of his audience. Pilots like Nikolay Gryazin or the Estonians Egon Kaur and Georg Linnamäe also want to stand out. Martin Prokop is the only pilot M-Sport, while Hyundai incorporates Hayden Paddon. The Junior champion Sami Pajari and the Indian Gaurav Gill can be luxury ‘outsiders’.
Stages and times of the 71st Rally Finland
Thursday, August 04, 2022
Friday, August 05, 2022
Saturday, August 06, 2022
Sunday, October 03, 2021
Photos: FIA WRC