The WRC2 category will feature a total of eight cars at Rally Finland. A slightly lower entry list than in other rallies, not least because two of the three contenders for the silver category title are missing. Andreas Mikkelsen and Marquito Bulacia do not have the Finnish appointment scheduled and that means Mads ostberg he is ‘alone’. However, the Norwegian will have fierce competition as, although there is no direct fight for the title, there are two drivers who are called to fight for victory in their home rally. Teemu Suninen competes with a Polo GTI R5 and Jari Huttunen with an i20 N Rally2.
With everything, Jari Huttunen’s approach to Rally Finland has been quite bumpy. In fact, the local driver had a strong accident with his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 during the now traditional ‘Monday Test’. Although the damage to the car was noticeable, Hyundai has activated all its springs to repair and rebuild the vehicle before shakedown on Friday. To this end, the brand will send all the necessary parts from Alzenau to Jyväskyla. In the end, Jari Huttunen is still in a position to win the WRC2 category as he has only played four rallies, by the six of Andreas Mikkelsen or Marco Bulacia.
Hyundai also has the trump card of Oliver Solberg, a rider who, due to his driving characteristics, can do very well on the fast Finnish stages. With everything, both will have a tough rival in Teemu Suninen, since the Finn will be at the controls of the vehicle that Esapekka Lappi would have used had he not competed with a Toyota Yaris WRC. The list of registrants is completed by Nikolay Gryazin and Georg Linnamäe with their Volkswagen, as well as Martin Prokop and Tom Kristensson, the two official pilots of the M-Sport team. The Swedish driver is another candidate for partial victory in WRC2.