It was a disappointing event for Teemu Suninen and M-Sport.
Sebastien Ogier's massive final stage jump: Photo: Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
All three team Hyundai i20 WRCs lasted the course, finishing the event in 4-6-7 positions, their only sight of a podium result being after the opening downtown stage, which was won by Thierry Neuville.
Through the rest of the event, however, he was off the pace for no known reason and was far from showing the pace of a serious championship contender.
Andreas Mikkelssen was their star driver this time and by making consistently good times on orthodox stages finished within a minute of the winners.
Craig Breen proved himself a useful supporting driver enlisted for this event, enjoying competing on his first WRC event since the end of 2018. He was steadily in sixth position until ordered by the team to sacrifice a position to improve Neuville’s championship chances.
Citroen had a fraught event with Sebastien Ogier struggling with sickness on the Saturday, but happily made no mistakes. This time Esapekka Lappi was in fine form, the 2017 rally winner unable to beat the Toyota on speed, but benefitting when Latvala was told to take no risks.
Lappi enjoyed his first podium result since Sweden this year, while Ogier finished fifth after a long battle with Mikkelsen.
It was sad to see the difficulties at M-Sport. First problem was that Elfyn Evans had to withdraw because of an injury incurred on a jump on the non-championship Estonia Rally, something which might put him out of action for several events.
His entry was taken over by Gus Greensmith who drove steadily and sensibly until two stages from the end when he impacted a roadside tree.
This left M-Sport relying on the Finnish driver Teemu Suninen, who had finished second in Sardinia, but his flair was completely missing and he cruised round to finish an uninspiring eighth.
Such was the pace set by the World Rally Cars that no privateers had a hope of a top position on this event and behind Suninen there was a long line of R5 cars.
The new second generation R5 cars were being delivered to the teams as fast as Skoda and M-Sport could produce them, this event being the WRC debut for the new Fiesta R5 MkII.
In WRC2 Pro two such cars were entered by M-Sport for Eric Camilli, and for Gus Greensmith, but then the English driver was given consent to drive M-Sport’s vacated World Rally Car entry instead. For M-Sport this was a vital chance to see how their new car performed.
In the end the recently introduced Skoda Fabia Evo ran away from the R5 opposition. Kalle Rovanpera was in a league of his own, being hounded by Pierre-Louis Loubet’s new Skoda before crashing on Saturday evening, which allowed Nikolay Gryazin’s original generation Fabia to finish second.
Eerik Pietarinen crashed his new Skoda Evo early on, while the veteran Henning Solberg finished seventh R5 car in his new Skoda.
Camilli finished fifth in his new Fiesta, while Katsuta went off the road in his new Fiesta MkII. Third R5 place for the Hyundai of Jari Huttunen was a fine result, ahead of rallycross driver Johan Kristoffersson’s VW, who had an early delay with a puncture.
Tom Kristensson regained the lead in the JWRC series ahead of Jan Solans, who also spent time recovering after a puncture. Only one more JWRC event is to follow, the double-points event at Wales Rally GB.
Neste Rally Finland (WRC Rd 9 of 14):
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:30:40.3
2 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferme (Citroen C3 WRC): +25.6
3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +33.2
4 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +53.4
5 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) +56.1
6 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:32.4
7 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:38.2
8 Teemu Suninen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2:33.8
9 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Skoda Fabia R5) +7:54.1
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Yaroslav Fedorov (Skoda Fabia R5) +10:28.7
WRC drivers’ standings:
1 Ott Tänak 180 points
2 Sébastien Ogier 158
3 Thierry Neuville 155
4 Elfyn Evans 78
5 Andreas Mikkelsen 71
6 Teemu Suninen 66
7 Kris Meeke 60
8 Esapekka Lappi 58
9 Jari-Matti Latvala 56
10 Dani Sordo 50
WRC manufacturers’ standings:
1 Hyundai WRT 262 points
2 Toyota Gazoo Racing 236
3 Citroën Total WRT 198
4 M-Sport Ford WRT 158
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