JUHO HANNINEN / MIKKO MARKKULA
|
|
|
JUHO HANNINEN / MIKKO MARKKULA
|
|
|
JUSSI VALIMAKI / TEPPO LEINO
|
|
|
Juho Hanninen (Finland) collected his second Production Car World Rally Championship win of the season to move himself into pole position for this year’s title. The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution driver didn’t put a wheel wrong through today’s final three stages of Rally Finland, arriving at the end of the event in Jyvaskyla this afternoon with a three-minute lead over second-placed Jussi Valimaki (Finland).
Once again, the Lancer Evolution was the quickest car in the Production category, with Mitsubishis collecting all seven of the top 10 Group N places. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions have now won Group N on the last 9 rounds of the World Rally Championship.
"This is a fantastic result for me," said Hanninen, who closes to eight points of Production Car World Rally Championship leader and fellow Lancer Evolution driver Andreas Aigner (Austria). Crucially for Hanninen, he has started one less round of the championship than his Austrian rival. Hanninen will now contest all three remaining rounds of the PWRC, while Aigner misses Rally Japan.
"After all of the fighting for the first two days, today wasn’t so bad," said Hanninen. "I was able to take it a bit easier and enjoy the roads. The car has been perfect. The way the Group N Mitsubishi takes these jumps and keeps the speed is incredible."
After injuring his ribs on the opening day, Valimaki was very happy with second place at the end of the event.
"It’s been a really tough rally, very long and with some new stages," said Valimaki. "The pain was quite bad from my ribs. Also, we had a puncture on the first stage this morning. It was about four kilometers from the end of the stage on the front-left wheel. I was trying to avoid all of the rocks, but this just shows how careful you have to be on this event."
Warm sunshine had ensured this was another fantastic day for spectating on what is one of the most popular rounds of the World Rally Championship. With thousands of fans lining the road to watch the cars fly over the rollercoaster sequence at the end of Ruuhimaki, it’s not hard to see what makes this rally so popular.
Fumio Nutahara (Japan) was certainly enamored with the Finnish stages on his first time competing here. The multiple Japanese Rally Champion collected an astonishing sixth in Production at the end of what is regarded to be the most specialized round of the series.
"The roads are very, very nice," said Nutahara. "We had a small problem with the pace notes. It is very hard to make the notes well on these roads which have so many crests. But it’s so fantastic to be flying in the car. It’s been a great rally."
Patrick Flodin (Sweden) finished the event 2nd in PWRC, however was excluded from the classification following the post-event scrutineering; the car rented locally, specifically for Rally Finland, was found to have a non-standard turbo.
Frenchman Sebastien Loeb shared those sentiments, winning the event overall for Citroen. Local hero Mikko Hirvonen (Finland) was second for Ford, with Chris Atkinson (Australia) collecting third.
The next round of the FIA World Rally Championship is Rallye Deutschland (August 14-17).
|
|
| 1 |
Juho Hanninen
Mikko Markkula |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
1 |
3:08:38.1 |
**:**:**.* |
| 2 |
Jussi Valimaki
Teppo Leino |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
2 |
3:11:51.7 |
3:13.6 |
| 3 |
Jari Ketomaa
Miika Teiskonen |
FIN
FIN |
SUBARU IMPREZA |
N
3 |
3:13:53.6 |
5:15.5 |
| 4 |
Oscar Svedlund
Bjorn Nilsson |
S
S |
SUBARU IMPREZA |
N
4 |
3:14:40.5 |
6:02.4 |
| 5 |
Fumio Nutahara
Daniel Barritt |
J
GB |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
6 |
3:21:41.6 |
13:03.5 |
| 6 |
Jussi Tiippana
Marko Salminen |
FIN
FIN |
SUBARU IMPREZA |
N
7 |
3:22:01.1 |
13:23.0 |
| 7 |
Evgeny Aksakov
Alexander Kornilov |
RUS
RUS |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
9 |
3:26:10.7 |
17:32.6 |
| 8 |
Simone Campedelli
Danilo Fappani |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
10 |
3:28:26.4 |
19:48.3 |
| 9 |
Fabio Frisiero
Simone Scattolin |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
11 |
3:30:40.4 |
22:02.3 |
| 10 |
Eyvind Brynhildsen
Denis Giraudet |
N
F |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
20 |
3:52:31.9 |
43:53.8 |
| 11 |
Giovanni Manfrinato
Carlo Pisano |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
27 |
4:07:49.7 |
59:11.6 |
1
M |
Sebastien Loeb
Daniel Elena |
F
MC |
CITROEN C4 WRC |
A
1 |
2:54:05.5 |
**:**:**.* |
2
M |
Mikko Hirvonen
Jarmo Lehtinen |
FIN
FIN |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 07 |
A
2 |
2:54:14.5 |
0:09.0 |
3
M |
Chris Atkinson
Stephane Prevot |
AUS
B |
SUBARU IMPREZA WRC 2008 |
A
3 |
2:57:22.5 |
3:17.0 |
4
M |
Daniel Sordo
Marc Marti |
E
E |
CITROEN C4 WRC |
A
4 |
2:57:36.4 |
3:30.9 |
5
M |
Henning Solberg
Cato Menkerud |
N
N |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 07 |
A
5 |
2:58:03.2 |
3:57.7 |
6
M |
Petter Solberg
Philip Mills |
N
GB |
SUBARU IMPREZA WRC 2008 |
A
6 |
2:58:09.6 |
4:04.1 |
7
|
Matti Rantanen
Jan Lonegren |
FIN
FIN |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 06 |
A
7 |
3:00:16.6 |
6:11.1 |
8
M |
Toni Gardenmeister
Tomi Tuominen |
FIN
FIN |
SUZUKI SX4 |
A
8 |
3:02:24.2 |
8:18.7 |
9
|
Matthew Wilson
Scott Martin |
GB
GB |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 07 |
A
9 |
3:02:42.8 |
8:37.3 |
10
|
Conrad Rautenbach
David Senior |
ZW
GB |
CITROEN C4 WRC |
A
10 |
3:04:36.4 |
10:30.9 |
11
|
Khalid Al Qassimi
Michael Orr |
UAE
GB |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 07 |
A
11 |
3:07:43.6 |
13:38.1 |
12
|
Andreas Mikkelsen
Ola Floene |
N
N |
FORD FOCUS RS WRC 06 |
A
12 |
3:08:29.4 |
14:23.9 |
13
P |
Juho Hanninen
Mikko Markkula |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
1 |
3:08:38.1 |
14:32.6 |
14
P |
Jussi Valimaki
Teppo Leino |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
2 |
3:11:51.7 |
17:46.2 |
15
|
Urmo Aava
Kuldar Sikk |
EE
EE |
CITROEN C4 WRC |
A
13 |
3:13:19.1 |
19:13.6 |
16
P |
Jari Ketomaa
Miika Teiskonen |
FIN
FIN |
SUBARU IMPREZA |
N
3 |
3:13:53.6 |
19:48.1 |
17
P |
Oscar Svedlund
Bjorn Nilsson |
S
S |
SUBARU IMPREZA |
N
4 |
3:14:40.5 |
20:35.0 |
18
|
Guy Wilks
Phil Pugh |
GB
GB |
HONDA CIVIC TYPE-R |
A
14 |
3:16:42.6 |
22:37.1 |
19
|
Andis Neiksans
Peteris Dzirkalis |
LV
LV |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
5 |
3:17:02.2 |
22:56.7 |
20
J |
Martin Prokop
Jan Tomanek |
CZ
CZ |
CITROEN C2 |
A
15 |
3:17:52.2 |
23:46.7 |
| ../ |
23
P |
Fumio Nutahara
Daniel Barritt |
J
GB |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
6 |
3:21:41.6 |
27:36.1 |
25
|
Daniele Ceccoli
Cristiana Biondi |
RSM
RSM |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
8 |
3:23:20.3 |
29:14.8 |
27
P |
Evgeny Aksakov
Alexander Kornilov |
RUS
RUS |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
9 |
3:26:10.7 |
32:05.2 |
29
P |
Simone Campedelli
Danilo Fappani |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
10 |
3:28:26.4 |
34:20.9 |
32
P |
Fabio Frisiero
Simone Scattolin |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
11 |
3:30:40.4 |
36:34.9 |
37
|
Pekka Savela
Jari Kihlman |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
13 |
3:37:48.4 |
43:42.9 |
42
|
Jarmo Komsi
Timo Hantunen |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
15 |
3:43:32.3 |
49:26.8 |
49
P |
Eyvind Brynhildsen
Denis Giraudet |
N
F |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
20 |
3:52:31.9 |
58:26.4 |
53
|
Anssi Mustonen
Kari Kallio |
FIN
FIN |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VI |
A
32 |
3:53:50.0 |
59:44.5 |
56
|
Fabrizio De Sanctis
Luri Rosignoli |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VI |
A
33 |
3:57:05.8 |
1:03:00.3 |
60
P |
Giovanni Manfrinato
Carlo Pisano |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION IX |
N
27 |
4:07:49.7 |
1:13:44.2 |
67
|
Vittorio Caneva
Barbara Perugini |
I
I |
MITSUBISHI LANCER EVOLUTION VII |
N
30 |
4:21:13.1 |
1:27:07.6 |
