ADAC Rally Deutchland 20-22 August 2010
Report is coming soon...
Neste Oil Rally Finland 29-31 July 2010
The best rally of the season for us Finnish drivers is of course the home rally. I had driven two test days all together about 600 kilometers which was more than ever before in two days. The car got clearly better in the tests due to new suspension. Still I was wondering if the car was fast enough to compete with the Citroens. This year's Rally Finland was a 60th anniversary of the race and it was driven in two days (there was one super special on Thursday though). So the race started on Thursday with Laajavuori super special stage where we first had to climb a tarmac slope. There were lots and lots of spectators which made the atmosphere great but it also added the excitement a bit. This first stage went well and I was third having the same time as Sebastien Loeb. Petter Solberg was the fastest. Friday morning started in Urria where I jumped too far and the front of my car hit the road the way it caused me some serious pain in the back. Mikko Hirvonen started well being the fastest of us all but his race ended on stage four where he jumped and drove off the road because after the jump when he hit the ground his steering got a bit jammed and the car was unable to steer. I had to drive a bit easier, too, because of the pain but in the service after stage five our personal physiotherapist, Pertti Siekkinen, was able to treat my back so that I could drive again with good rhythm. Petter Solberg was leading after stage five but now that I was able to drive with fine rhythm I drove the fastest time in Lankamaa and on both times in Sirkkajärvi. Now it was I who was leading the rally. At the end of the day we drove Laajavuori again after which I was leading the rally by 9.1 seconds. On Saturday I was the first car on the road and there was lots of loose gravel because of the dry summer. At night and in the morning there had been some showers which wetted the stages numbers 12 Kolonkulma and number 14 Surkee 1. In Kolonkulma I was the second fastest and I was able to make the difference between Petter Solberg and myself a bit bigger but in Väärinmaja the Sebastiens Ogier and Loeb attacked and were about seven seconds faster than me. When the road was dry I could not drive faster on loose gravel. On Surkee 1 I saw that the road was wet and I attacked taking big risks but it paid off. Driving on Surkee 1's narrow roads was smooth like a dance between the rocks. What I lost in Väärinmaja I took back in Surkee. On stages 15 Leustu and 16 Himos 1 I was the first car on the road again but I lost only a few seconds. The rivals behind me had changed places. It was Ogier who was closer to me now than Loeb, Solberg was behind Loeb. Ogier was 12 seconds behind which made me drive like a maniac on Surkee 2 to get more time between us two. Still Ogier got 1.7 seconds closer to me. After stage 17 we had service during which I started to get a bit excited: would ten seconds be enough for me to keep Ogier behind on the next two stages? He had increased his pace, I thought. Five first cars drove in reversed order because of the televising. Pertti Siekkinen relaxed me in the service and I started stage 18 Leustu 2 more concentrated than ever. I drove as fast as I could and took many risks. Halfway through the stage I heard the times and realized I was leading Ogier by two seconds. That increased my confidence. I drove so roughly I broke my wind shield both up and down but that didn't matter. In the finish of the stage I was 0.5 seconds faster than Ogier. That relaxed me because I knew that Ogier could not catch me on the last stage Himos 2. No more huge risks there for me. My concentration did not crack on the last stage and I got a great reward: in the finish there was the first Neste Oil Rally Finland victory waiting for me. My dream ever since I was a little boy has been to win this Rally Finland and now seven years after my first start in this rally I was the winner. I was so happy and relieved I did not have words to describe my feelings. I also became the youngest winner of Rally Finland when it has been a part of the world championships series.
Rally Bulgaria 7-11 July 2010
The first Rally Bulgaria in history was driven about 70 kilometers from Sofia close to a skiing resort. We had driven good tests before the race changing the car notably and for a better direction. We hoped that now we could be closer to the Citroens than last year. My own driving style has changed a bit after driving at Nurburgring in the spring. The race started on Friday in dry conditions. The first stage was the longest, almost 32 kilometers. Right away the Citroens went unbelievably fast although our car felt better on tarmac than last year. After the second stage the car started to feel too soft so I changed to a harder suspension which immediately helped and I was able to trust the car more. After Friday I was sixth and my team mate Mikko Hirvonen fifth ten seconds ahead me. Sebastien Loeb was leading. On Saturday morning there was a slight shower which made two of the stages wet but our team weather report was unable to give us that information. So Mikko and I took hard tyres while the Citroens took soft ones. Our tyres did not work in wet conditions so the Citroens rubbed our noses with their pace. The stages started to dry and in the afternoon our hard tyres were the right ones. But then my power steering broke down and I had to drive two stages without it. That was tough for arms. Luckily I didn't lose much due to that problem, only about half a minute but there were a couple of happenings along the way because my hands and arms got so tired that it was very difficult to turn the wheel. It was like hammering with a heavy hammer having your arms straight. After Saturday I was sixth 40 seconds behind number five and 40 seconds ahead number seven. On Sunday morning we tried different tyres because my position was safe so it wouldn't matter if I lost some time. My times in the morning weren't very good with soft tyres (the others were driving with hard ones). In the afternoon I took hard tyres and I drove like I normally do. We learned how different type of tyres work on different surface which would be useful information in the coming rallies. I finished the rally sixth, my team mate Mikko Hirvonen was fifth and Sebastien Loeb's triumphal march on tarmac continued.
Vodafone Rally de Portugal 28-30 April 2010
Rally Portugal like Rally Jordan is one of the most difficult rallies of the season because of the unnatural roads. Stones and small trees surround the relatively narrow roads which mean that one should be very careful driving on these roads. The race started on Thursday with a Super special where I was the 11 th but the differences were very small. The rally actually started on Friday with forest stages. Last year I drove off - badly - which affected my driving this year at first. I lost 0.7 seconds per kilometer to Dani Sordo who drove the first fastest time. Little by little my feeling got better and so did the stage times, too, but still something was missing. By the time of day service I was sixth in the rally and Sebastien Loeb was 12.1 seconds ahead of me. In the afternoon I started to get closer to him and I was about seven seconds behind when I noticed that my tyres were all worn out. Again I started to loose and by the end of the day our difference was about 18 seconds. My position was still number six but Loeb got to the third place while Sebastien Ogier was leading. I tried to attack on Saturday morning because I knew that in the morning the tyres would be good enough to do so. In the afternoon it would be time to save them. I was the second fastest on the first stage of the morning, 2.8 seconds behind Loeb. I was able to drive the second stage of the morning only about 300 meters when a fast left right corner combination went too wide and the car hit a rocky bank. That broke and jammed the rear left brake and the car turned 180 degrees sliding about 30 meters and of course the rear end of the car had to hit the only tree there was. My pace was still about 100km/h so the car got so badly damaged we couldn't fix it to the Super rally and that was the end of my competition!
Rally New Zealand 7-9 April 2010
The race came back from Hamilton to Auckland after five years. The main service, the Shakedown and the Super special stage were downtown, on the same tarmac road. Auckland's central location made it possible to start the race on northern stages which haven't been driven in five years. On the second day of the rally we headed south of Auckland to drive stages more familiar from the latter years but there were also new sections. The third day was the same as two years ago when this rally was driven the previous time. We started on Friday and finished on Sunday afternoon. I concentrated on driving fast but at a steady speed without taking any unnecessary risks like the team driver number two should do. Many drivers made minor mistakes due to slippery roads and the change of campers on the roads. Sebastien Loeb was the fastest driver but he drove off the road twice and he had two more events during the race. Sebastien Ogier was driving this rally for the first time and compared to his lack of experience he drove brilliantly. The lead changed many times during the race and the winner was clear only on the last meters of the rally after 400 raced kilometers. The last stage of the competition was Whaanga Coast (about 30 kilometers). While starting that last stage Sebastien Ogier was leading me by 6.2 seconds, Petter Solberg was third 10.6 seconds behind me and Loeb only less than a second behind Petter. Petter drove off after five kilometers and retired. Loeb had a spin at the end of the stage and lost about 12 seconds. Ogier and I were battling of the victory and in the middle of the stage I was five seconds ahead of him but at the end of the stage he drove faster. When there were only less than ten kilometers left of the stage I was only about three seconds ahead which was not enough to beat him overall. I tried to push harder but that was a mistake because now the car started to go sideways. By the end of the stage I started to believe that I had lost to Ogier but three corners before the finish line I saw bumper parts on the road. They were from Ogier's car. He had a spin three corners before the finish and lost about ten seconds and when I reached the finish I had won the rally by 2.4 seconds, third smallest gap in the history of rally racing. I felt unbelievably great because I didn't drive a single fastest time on the race, so I wasn't the fastest driver of the rally, but I was the steadiest. When this season started and I was told to be the driver number two in our team I didn't even dream of winning rallies so I got a great bonus by winning this race. Being driver number two in the team seems to be my thing. In the race Ogier was number two, Loeb was left third, Mikko Hirvonen finished as fourth and number five was Dani Sordo.
Rally of Turkey 16-18 April 2010
The rally changed from Kemer to Istanbul which also changed the conditions and the roads from technical hard surface to fast and rocky. On the second day of the race there were some parts driven on tarmac with gravel tyres which needed fast changed in the rhythm. Mostly the rally was driven on gravel, though. I started well. I was second on the opening stage on Friday but after that I lost my rhythm on stages two, three and four. We had service after the fourth stage and then we went back to drive the morning stages again plus one super special downtown Istanbul. In the afternoon my driving was okay again but I couldn't reach Sebastien Ogier or Dani Sordo who were driving very fast. Ogier was leading the rally after Friday; Sordo was second and Mikko Hirvonen third. I was sixth but only 27,5 seconds behind the lead. The first stage of Saturday morning was 18 kilometers with first 13 kilometers on tarmac. I had a good place because I was the sixth car on the road and I meant to take advantage of that. But something happened. I had driven only one kilometer when I came to a long full crest to the right. In my pace notes I had ‘full' but the tyres weren't warm enough and the car started to slide. I kept the gas pedal on the floor but the car didn't obey and it went into a ditch and off the road with tyres up into the air. Luckily there were some spectators to help us back on our tyres and back to the road again in four minutes and we could continue. The front of the car suffered some damage but no trouble in the steering or suspension. Unfortunately the turbo hose got a small hole which caused a leak and now we had no turbo power. We drove the stages 10 to 13 slowly through and got to the service. We lost over 18 minutes and dropped to the 17 th position. The car was fixed in the service and I tried to reach at least the position number ten to get some points to the team. In the afternoon everything went smoothly and we got to position 12. Sunday morning's two stages (18 and 19) were cancelled because the rain had made them too muddy. In the afternoon they got dry enough and were driven. Yet some sections were slippery and stressful to drive. On one of these slippery sections Sordo went off and retired. My day was calm and we rose into the eight position. I got four personal points and the team six points. Once again Sebastien Loeb won. Petter Solberg was second and Mikko Hirvonen third.
Jordan Rally 2-4 April 2010
This is one of the most difficult rallies of the series due to tricky roads, heat and lack of fixed points on the stages. The race started already on Thursday at eleven o'clock with a ceremonial start. After that we headed directly to the stages. I drove the fastest time on the first two stages so we were able to compete with the Citroens. My car felt great to drive on slippery gravel roads so I was feeling terrific. The first day went smoothly with no mistakes and the car was working like a dream. On the last stage of Thursday there was some tactics to be seen when some of the competitors drove more slowly to get a better position for the next day. My team, co-driver Miikka Anttila and I myself decided to drive as usually and maintain the lead. After Thursday I was leading by 30.2 seconds to Sebastien Ogier. Sebastien Loeb was third 31.8 seconds behind me. On Friday morning my team mate Mikko Hirvonen had to retire after cutting too tightly onto a bank. He broke his left front suspension in that. I was the first car on the roads with lots of loose gravel so it was very challenging to drive. On Friday we also drove the longest stage of the whole rally, over 40-kilometre-long Jordan River. This was not only the longest but also the most challenging stage of the rally and it was driven twice. Jordan River wasn't good for me because I lost over 20 seconds to Loeb both times we drove it and yet on the other stages I was pretty close to him. After a difficult Friday Loeb was leading the race, Ogier was number two 24.6 seconds behind Loeb and I was third 27.7 seconds behind Loeb. On Saturday morning the rally changed radically because of a larger scale tactics: Ogier started as the first car taking time penalty on purpose, Loeb started as the second car, Hirvonen (SuperRally) took the third place and I was number four. The reason for all this tactics was to get better driving positions but this was not good sportsmanship any more. I tried to give Loeb some pressure on the first stage of the morning so eagerly that I had a couple of events on the way but still I lost 0.4 seconds. After this first stage I concentrated on driving as number two in the rally because I no longer had Ogier competing with me; now my worst threat was Petter Solberg. He attacked on the second stage of the morning and was now only 12.7 seconds behind me but luckily I was able to increase my lead. Finally everything went as planned and I finished second. Loeb won and Petter Solberg was third. I was very pleased with my position and so was my team.
Corona Rally 5-7 March 2010
This was the first race on gravel for the season and also the first on gravel in six months. I tested in Spain for two days but the conditions were rainy and chilly so the testing wasn't much of a use. The first stage on Friday was a 23-kilometer-long up-hill stage. Right from the start it was obvious that the Citroens were much faster than the Fords. Petter Solberg took the lead, I was as far as the fifth and Hirvonen was sixth. During the day I found more speed after setting up the car a bit but still the Citroens seemed to flee. I didn't make any bigger mistakes but in some bumps the front of the car got a bit bent which broke the starting engine. Still all this did not affect my driving. At the end of the day P. Solberg was leading, Ogier was second, Loeb third, Sordo fourth, I was fifth and Hirvonen sixth. My driving place was better on Saturday and I thought that I could give pressure to the Citroens but no, it even was a very hard work to drive times within the three fastest. I made the suspension of the car harder during the day which really made the car better on fast sections but still no hope for the fastest times. I had one puncture during the day but that took only 20 seconds. Sordo drove off the road in the morning and broke his suspension. I took the fourth position because of that. Loeb drove incredibly fast and took the lead before P. Solberg and Ogier. On Sunday I drove like I did on Saturday. Only now I took no risks. In the end my position was fifth because I let Mikko Hirvonen pass me on the second last stage. This way he was able to get more points in the battle for the title. Loeb won the race; Solberg was second and Ogier third. Rally Mexico was very frustrating for the Fords because we couldn't reach the speed of the Citroens. One reason may be the altitude. In Mexico the rally is driven about two kilometers above the sea level where the air is very thin. It weakens the power of the engines. The Fords have five gears and the Citroens six which give their cars better performance.
Rally Sweden 12-14 February 2010
I have a new roll for the season of 2010: I am supporting Mikko Hirvonen to get the title and I am collecting points for the team to win the manufacture's title. This roll is only for this season and it gives me a chance to try and make my driving more balanced. The season started in Sweden - the previous time when Sweden started the rally season was in 1996. The conditions were very snowy and the temperature was below zero but the roads weren't icy. In fact there was only a thin layer of ice on the surface of the roads. This meant varying conditions: snow, ice, gravel and mixture. On Thursday we had a Super special on a horse race track in Karlstad but the actual rally started on Friday morning. We drove a forest stage in Likenäs. I started a bit cautiously when trying to drive fast but without bigger risks. After the second stage of the race I was fourth 4.1 seconds behind leading Loeb. On Friday I lost a few seconds on each stage but fortunately I was lucky enough to drive one fastest time in the afternoon. I had no bigger problems during the day but one crossroads went too long and I had to back up. After Friday Hirvonen was leading, Loeb was second, Sordo third and I was number four 21.1 seconds behind Sordo. On Saturday I tried to give Sordo some pressure but it seemed that he was getting away. My car felt under steering and my driving position wasn't the best possible. In the afternoon service we changed the set up of the car a bit (from the rear) and we improved my driving position. After that I started to drive better and now I was able to catch Sordo second by second. In the evening before the last stage of the day I was 9.4 seconds behind Sordo. And we went to the forest stage of Fredriksberg where I managed to drive the fastest time. Sordo had some trouble with his car which overheated because of some plastics they had forgotten to take off from the radiator. He lost about a minute on that. Now I was third in the rally. On Sunday my instructions were to take the car unharmed to the finish in third position which I did. The day was a success and I even managed to save the tyres even though the staged on Sunday were very bad, pure gravel instead of snow. This offered me a chance to drive two fastest times. Mikko Hirvonen kept his first place and won the rally. Loeb was number two. This was a great start of the season for our team and I myself was very pleased since the last good start for the season for me was five years ago.