Janni Hussi navigated Lauri Joona to a third-place finish in WRC2 at their home event, Rally Finland, overcoming challenging wet conditions and improving their championship standing to fourth overall and second in the WRC2 Challenger class.
Rally Finland is a special event on the WRC calendar, even more so when it’s your home rally, as it is for Lauri Joona and Janni Hussi - one of the female co-drivers climbing the ranks in the top categories of world rallying in recent years.
After some challenging rallies and a third place in Portugal, Joona and Hussi in fact finally returned to the podium in WRC2 with another third-place finish in Finland.
The opening day of Rally Finland saw Oliver Solberg leading as he continued his strong performance, with Jari-Matti Latvala in second and Robert Virves in third. Many teams ran into trouble, among them Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen, who suffered an accident in the challenging conditions of the wet forest paths.
Lauri Joona and Janni Hussi managed to navigate the morning and afternoon loops without major issues, though they were still searching for their rhythm in the tricky wet conditions. They sat in sixth place after Friday's run.
"Friday done! It’s already been a crazy, amazing, and fun rollercoaster," said Janni Hussi.
Saturday saw Solberg retaining the lead, holding a 47-second lead ahead of Latvala and Joona, who climbed to third, guided by Janni Hussi through the stages, pushing them from sixth to third.
Solberg and Latvala engaged in a great battle throughout the day, alternating stage wins until Latvala spun at Ouninpohja, the last stage of the day, solidifying the order in favor of Solberg.
Sunday did not change much for the standings, as Solberg secured his next victory of the season and strengthened his championship lead, now 28 points ahead of Sami Pajari, who made his Rally1 debut this weekend together with Enni Mälkönen.
In WRC2, drivers can compete in seven events, with their best six results counting toward the championship.
Solberg has reached this limit now, while his closest championship contenders, Pajari and Yohan Rossel, still have events in hand to score points and potentially overtake Solberg for the title.
Lauri Joona and Janni Hussi managed to maintain third place despite Mikko Heikkilä's strong pace behind them.
Heikkilä couldn’t make up enough time to claim the final podium spot, missing it by 2.6 seconds after a 10-second penalty.
The pair now sits fourth in the overall WRC2 championship standings. With their victory in the WRC2 Challenger class this weekend, Joona and Hussi have moved up to second place behind Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen.
Comments