Co-driver: Miikka Anttila

We rested properly on a two-week holiday and after that came to New Zealand. The rally had moved from Auckland to Hamilton. Right away on stage one I was able to drive the fastest time but on stage two I swung and lost ten valuable seconds. On Friday I tried to drive as fast as possible but I couldn’t catch Juho Hanninen who was leading group N. On Saturday morning we managed to take perfect tyres and we drove fine times on slippery stages. In the middle of the day we were leading group N and the rest of the day went without trouble. When we came to the evening service an unpleasant surprise was waiting for us: we had driven 42km/h at the service area and the speed limit there is only 30km/h. The jury had decided to fine us with one minute.

On Sunday morning we started as second in group N 56 seconds behind Mirco Baldacci. But he was unlucky and had to retire because of a broken gearbox. We could maintain our lead till the end of the rally although it wasn’t easy to drive on slippery roads. The second win in group N was as sweet as the first one.

Group N 1st, Overall 8th

Subaru Impreza WRX Sti 06
Service Team: Motoring Club
Competition engineer: Asko Kosonen