Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
Chief mechanic: Pekka Asunmaa
The roads were expected to be great in Valkeakoski, but because I was driving as the first car, I knew the roads would be slippery at least for me. This was in fact the case on the opening stage, where I ended up losing three seconds to the stage winner, Sebastian Lindholm. On the next three stages I was able to gain the gap but unfortunately only by 0,5 seconds. The differences in times were marginal and catching Lindholm felt like a lot of work. We seemed to have excactly the same speed. On stage five Lindholm increased the gap by nearly two seconds. On stage six I tried to catch him, and I achieved quite well until the last crossing where I made a stupid mistake. I came too fast to the crossing so that the rear end of the car spinned on the loose gravel. I ended up gidding the ditch for 50 meters until I was able to get the car back on the road. I lost some valuable seconds so that Sebastian was 1,7 seconds faster on this stage. The gap was 7,5 seconds when the last, a 21 kilometers long stage was left to drive. I pulled my best and didn’t make any mistakes this time, but Lindholm was a bit faster though. I was to settle for the second position on both the overall and the group competition with 8,1 seconds gap to Lindholm. Lindholm was better in Waltikka Rally but fortunately I maintained my lead in the series.
2nd
Toyota Corolla WRC
Team: Latvala Motorsport Ltd
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen