After successful Neste Rally Finland I got positive feeling to go to Germany and tarmac event. In the beginning of the rally I didn’t feel too confident with the car and driving was too unconsistent, but it got better towards the evening.

In the second day of the rally we were driving at the legendary Baumholder military area. Dani Sordo was the fastest there by winning three out of four stages. I wasn’t able to drive good enough there but faster field rounded roads suits me better. We had really tight fight with Dani for the second place. Ott Tänak was too far before us. After saturday I was 0,8 seconds behind Dani.

Sunday morning was about to culminate for fight between Dani and Me. At the road section my car’s hydraulic pump failed. That left central differential open and I need to use mechanical gear shift. Car was hard to drive and this strained car a lot and that’s why gearbox broke down one kilometre before the first stage end. Also Dani Sordo went off on that stage. End results were Tänak, Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi.

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I felt pressure more than ever before the rally. I got five bad rallies in a row before Rally Finland and I had to stop that trend. Pressure affected me in the first proper stage, Moksi, on friday morning. I was 9,4 seconds behind Ott Tänak in the stage that I like the most in the rally. After this stage I was able to find the good rhythm for the three next stages. After the midday service I lost my pace again at Oittila. I lost 10 seconds there. Again after this one poor stage time I was able to find the right mood and after the friday we hold 3rd position overall.

On saturday morning I decide to try to catch Ott Tänak and Mads Östberg. After first saturday morning stages I realized that Ott Tänak has done superb job and without his problems I am not able to catch him. I made small setup changes in the midday service. After this I was more confident with the car and I felt more relaxed. I was able to narrow the gap between me and Mads, and after saturday I was 5,4 seconds behind him.

On Sunday there were two stages driven twice, Laukaa and Ruuhimäki. I was at maximum attack -mode for the whole loop. I didn’t even break to any jumps, but still it wasn’t enough. Rally ended to the 3rd place 2,8 seconds behind Mads Östberg, who drove one of the his best rallies.

Tänak won, Östberg second and I was third. This result took out of the pressures from my shoulders.

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Our tactic for this rally was to save the car and tires because our latest successful event was Rally Monte Carlo in January.

Driving wasn’t too consistent but we didn’t made any mistakes. With this setup we were at third after friday.

On saturday we decided to try to ensure our position because Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier were driving too fast for our risk level. Our team mate Esapekka Lappi was in the fourth place, not too far from us, so we weren’t able to play too safety. We had good competition with EP until the last special stage of saturday. Recharger from our Yaris stopped working. We tried all that we can to go to service, but liaison distance from the stage end was more than 100 kilometres, but we had to retire when battery charge ended.

We got 14 minutes time penalty, but we were able to participate on sunday, again under Rally 2. I was able to achieve seventh place. In the Power Stage I tried to got some points, but I stalled the engine in the hairpin and that’s why we lost those points.

Thierry Neuville won Sebastien Ogier only by 0,7 seconds and EP Lappi was third.

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Latest rally in Argentina was ended far too early because of suspension breakage and that’s why our expectations were high for this event. Especially because we had won this rally in 2015.

In the first pass of super special stage I stalled the engine at the star, so start for the rally wasn’t too good. The first proper special stage on the friday morning was more or less getting touch for the driving and I decided to attack in special stage 2. First 5 kilometres went  nicely, but then in one almost full speed right hander I cut and hit the rock. That broke right front suspension and we had to retire.

Luckily we were able to go on under Rally 2 regulation. That gave us a bit better feeling and confidence. We got couple fastest stage times but still we didn’t got any points, which was frustrating.

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I was prepared well for the event and car felt really good at test sessions. New suspension and better software for the central diff made car more precise to drive and more traction for the tyres.

I was fastest at the shakedown, which confirmed our good tests. Rally started well and we were third after the first special stage of the friday, which was driven in the thick dust. In the second stage of the day our speed was even better and the feeling was good. We were at the fastest pace when at the fast right hand corner right front tyre hit the rock that was flipped up by the previous car. That broke suspension and the drive shift pulled out from the gearbox. That broke the engine oil pipe. When oil ran out engine damaged and our rally finished there.

My team mate Ott Tänak won the rally, Thierry Neuville was second and Dani Sordo third.

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Rally didn’t start well for us. I wasn’t able to find the confidence to the car unless in pre-event tests car felt good. Conditions were mostly dry but from earlier rains there were some damp sections, there our car was really hard to drive. We changed a lot of our setups and finally in the saturday afternoon I found a good balance and the feeling was there where it should be.

When I found the confidence and we were fastest on the split times, rear of the car loosen from the tarmac and I wasn’t able to got it back, we ended up to the tree sideway. There were spectators and we were able to get back on the road. Unluckily two of the roll gage bar were bended and we weren’t able to go on. Team started to repair the car for the Rally 2 but damages were too big to repair at the “field conditions”.

Sebastien Ogier won the rally, Ott Tänak second and Thierry Neuville was third.

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Temperature was over 30 celsius degrees for all the weekend and special stages takes place over 2000 metres above sea level these circumstances requires a lot from the car. Last year we had engine over heating problems and unfotunately we weren’t able solve all those for this year.

Our car had improved a lot from last year but still we had technical problems caused by engine over heating. From my car battery recharger broke up and Ott Tänak had turbo problem.

With Sisu we were able to reach eight place and from the Power Stage we got four bonus points. Sebastien Ogier won the rally, Dani Sordo was second and Kris Meeke was third. Sebastien Loeb was the rank outsider and he reached fourth place at the end. Loeb even lead the rally on saturday.

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Our last year victory didn’t help us in this year rally. On the first day of the rally there were rained lot of snow and those snowy roads it was very hard to find the good grip when we were third on the road. For the later road positions ruts were deeper and the grip was lot better.

I wasn’t able to find the good setup and feeling for driving in the whole weekend. I was mainly driving that rally through and at the end we were 7th. Thierry Neuville won the rally, Graig Breen second and Andreas Mikkelsen was third.

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