Co-driver: Miikka Anttila
The car felt good in the Shakedown and we were the third fastest there. That made us feel good before the actual start. The rally started on Thursday at Killeri where we drove a Super Special stage. I was number six there and didn’t make any big mistakes so I was looking forward to starting on Friday. Vellipohja was the first stage on Friday. It went pretty well, at least I had that kind of feeling, but ahead lay a surprise: we had driven the fastest time and went to the next stage, Mokkipera, leading the whole rally. Unfortunately our lead didn’t last long because I lost my concentration on the stage after having the seal from the door onto my hands. Finally, when I got rid of the seal I stopped the car at a crossroads. I got more confused and 800 meters later I braked too late and the rear end of the car went into a ditch getting stuck there. It took us two minutes to get the car back to the road and we dropped in positions, we were number 31 now but still having a chance to get back to the championship points. Stages 4 – 6 went nicely and our position was now 17th. Then came the stage number 7 Palsankyla where we were to retire. It was a really fast uphill left corner with a loose stone on the road. We hit it, it threw our car into a ditch where we hit another stone which broke our right rear suspension. The hit was so hard that the broken rear suspension punctured the roll cage because of which we couldn’t enter the Super rally the next day, the car wasn’t safe enough any more. The race had a beautiful start but it finished embarrassingly. We learned again new things and now we are heading towards the next rallies in better mood.
retirement
Car: Ford Focus WRC -06
Service Team: Stobart