The surprisingly rainy Rally Finland was won in the WRC2 category by Oliver Solberg/Eliott Edmondson in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Solberg has strengthened his lead in the category standings of the FIA World Rally Championship with his commanding performance.
The third fast gravel rally in a row brought success to Oliver Solberg again. He followed up on the second place from Poland and the victory from Latvia. Once again, Solberg won in a start-to-finish style and strengthened his lead in the WRC2 championship standings.
Solberg got off to a good start in the opening super special stage on Friday and didn't let anyone lead the way throughout the rally, which was accompanied by a surprising amount of rain. On Friday, local rally matador Jari-Matti Latvala quickly emerged as his main rival, winning the event three times overall. "Fifteen years ago, I fought Petter Solberg. Now I'm going up against his son. It's a strange feeling," joked Jari-Matti Latvala.
On Friday, Solberg mainly built up his lead, which he increased especially in the afternoon program, when he won four of the five stages, and throughout whole Friday, Solberg won five of the nine stages. Other Škoda crews were then chasing Latvala, especially the duos of Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk and Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi. The Gus Greensmith and Jonas Anderson duo was also aiming for a good result, but they were the first of the Škoda crews to take a portion of their bad luck. During a small trip off the track, they damaged their car in the seventh special stage, and that meant the end of all their hopes.
Saturday was unlucky for the Estonian duo of Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk, which was third in the WRC2 category after Friday's leg. On the way to the famous Ouninpohja stage, they had to deal with a mechanical problem during the roadsection and forgot to close the bonnet properly in a hurry. It opened shortly after the start of the special stage and with a limited visibility, they lost almost four minutes to the winner of the stage, Solberg, which meant a dramatic drop down the standings. Solberg, by the way, "flew through" this legendary stage at an average speed of 128.2 km/h.
The problems of the Estonian crew, who eventually finished the rally in eighth place, pushed the home duo of Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi forward. In the end, after an intense battle with other local rivals at the end of the rally, they finished third in the WRC2 category. In the end, Solberg won the rally by 39 seconds. In the overall standings of the rally, Solberg even reached fifth place.
With the victory, he now leads the WRC2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship standings by 28 points.
The first three places were taken by drivers with Škoda cars in the WRC Masters Cup category for drivers over 50 years of age. The winners were Ricardo Triviño of Mexico and co-driver Diego Fuentes of Spain, followed by Uğur Soylu/Sener Guray of Turkey in second place and the Italian duo of Maurizio Chiarani/Flavio Zanella taking third.
The next gravel rally of the World Championship series, Rally Greece, will start at the beginning of September (05th September 2024) and will definitely be worth watching!
