WRC - 2021 Rally Finland Preview

Sport news This will be the 70th running of the rally that has been almost always present in the history of the WRC. The cancellation of the 2020 event due to COVID-19 was only the second time since 1973 the Finnish rally has been absent from the calendar. But the October date this year is a first – rescheduled from the usual summer date to make sure spectators can watch the stages. The potential for cooler temperatures and rain could provide extra challenges for the drivers on stages that are known for high speeds and big jumps. The Toyota team based in the host city of Jyväskylä has enjoyed a perfect winning record on Rally Finland since 2017. Heading to the 2021 round, Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans are first and second in the standings, separated by 44 points – meaning Ogier has the possibility to clinch an eighth drivers’ title in Finland, should he increase his advantage above 60 points. Just seven points behind Evans in fourth overall is Kalle Rovanperä, who was born in Jyväskylä and enters his home event on a high after winning in Estonia and Greece. Toyota’s 2017 Rally Finland winner Esapekka Lappi returns to drive a fifth Yaris WRC with the private team RTE-Motorsport, with Takamoto Katsuta also in action with the Irishman Aaron Johnston as a new co-driver at his side for this event. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville is third in the drivers’ standings, 50 points from Ogier, while Ott Tänak will be one to watch in Finland after winning the 2018 and 2019 editions. Craig Breen returns to the team’s third i20 Coupe WRC after second-place finishes on his last two outings in Estonia and Belgium. Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux form the M-Sport Ford pairing, the latter starting the event with new co-driver Alexandre Coria after he and Renaud Jamoul decided to part ways. TRT’s Mads Østberg heads an eight-car entry in FIA WRC2 with a chance to close the 30-point gap to championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian Citroën driver from will face competition from a pair of Flying Finns with Jari Huttunen at the wheel of a Hyundai i20 N Rally2 and Teemu Suninen, who drives a Movisport-entered Volkswagen Polo on home soil before he will join the Hyundai fold for the next round in Spain. Their respective team-mates Oliver Solberg and Nikolay Gryazin are among the other contenders, the former who will also swap co-driver in Finland. Several other talented Finnish drivers line up in FIA WRC3. Emil Lindholm, currently fifth in the category standings, is joined by the likes of Teemu Asunmaa, who won the class on Arctic Rally Finland in February; Mikko Heikkilä, third in both the Arctic and on Rally Estonia; and Eerik Pietarinen, who was the WRC3 winner on Rally Finland in 2018. There’s also a four-wheel drive debut for FIA Junior WRC regular Lauri Joona. Spain’s Pepe López and Estonian Egon Kaur lead the visitors.   THE 2021 ROUTE The change of date means that Rally Finland will run with a more compact schedule this year, but still features 19 stages and 287.11 competitive kilometres. Shakedown takes place on Friday morning before the traditional Harju test opens the competitive action on the streets of Jyväskylä in the early afternoon. Five forest stages follow over the remainder of Friday, running beyond sunset. Saturday features over half of the competitive distance and consists mostly of two loops of four stages to the south around Jämsa. These includes new tests in Arvaja and Patajoki, before a repeat of Harju in the evening. Sunday is familiar from recent years, with repeated passes of Laukaa and Ruuhimäki – the latter hosting the Wolf Power Stage.   RALLY DATA Total distance:   1059.64 km Stage distance:    287.11 km (27.1 %) Number of stages:  19   MEDIA ACCREDITATION Media accreditation and attendance is strictly managed with modified terms under COVID-19 regulations. All attendees are required to comply with the COVID protocol as defined by the event organisers (please refer to the Bulletins on the Virtual Notice Board and in particular the COVID Delegate notes). Media accreditation must be collected personally by accredited Pass Holders at the Media Accreditation Desk, located in the Hall B of the Paviljonki (Schaumanin Puistotie 18, Jyväskylä, Finland). Opening hours: Tuesday 28 September: 14.00-20.00 Wednesday 29 September: 09.00-20.00 Thursday 30 September: 10.00-20.00 Friday 1 October: Upon request   2021 WRC SECTO RALLY FINLAND TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES Tuesday 28 September   Promo. disc gold activity with selected drivers, open to tabard media,   Location: Laajavuori DiskGolfPark, Laajavuorentie, 40740 Jyväskylä  14:00 – 15:00 hrs     Wednesday 29 September   Mandatory media safety briefing via video conference (details TBC) 17:00 hrs     Thursday 30 September   Family photo with P1 crews & cars, Jyväskylä town hall 18:15 – 18:30 hrs Pre-event FIA press conference, via online video conference (details TBC) 19:00 – 19:30 hrs -FIA WRC 19:00 hrs -FIA WRC2 19:10 hrs -FIA WRC3 19:20 hrs     Friday 1 October   Shakedown for P1 and other requested drivers, Vesala 08:00 – 09:00 hrs Shakedown for all Priority drivers, Vesala 09:00 - 10:30 hrs Shakedown for non-priority drivers, Vesala 10:30 - 12:00 hrs Start of the rally, Section 1, Jyväskylä Service Park 13:07 hrs Tyre fitting zone, Petäjävesi (TC3A) 16:18 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & flexi-service (TC6A), SP 20:05 hrs     Saturday 2 October   Start of Section 2, Jyväskylä Service Park 06:43 hrs First car arrives for media zone, regroup & tech. zone, SP (TC10A) 12:43 hrs First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & flexi-service (TC15A), SP 20:20 hrs     Sunday 3 October   Start of Section 4, Jyväskylä Service Park 07:27 hrs Final podium and prize giving, Ruuhimäki 14:15 Post-event FIA press conference, via video conference (details TBC) 16:30 -FIA WRC2 and WRC3 winning drivers 16:30 hrs -Top three overall drivers and winning manufacturer representative 16:40 hrs   FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE Thursday 30 September FIA WRC   Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT – Kalle Rovanperä (FIN)   Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT – Craig Breen (IRL)   M-Sport Ford WRT – Gus Greensmith (GBR)   RTE-Motorsport – Esapekka Lappi (FIN)       FIA WRC2   Hyundai Motorsport N – Jari Huttunen (FIN)   Movisport – Teemu Suninen (FIN)       FIA WRC3   Mikko Heikkilä (FIN)   Pepe López (ESP)     Sunday 3 October Winning FIA WRC3 Championship driver   Winning FIA WRC2 Championship driver   Top three drivers in the overall classification   Representative of the winning manufacturer   MANUFACTURER WRC ENTRIES, 2021 SECTO RALLY FINLAND   Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Sébastien Ogier (FRA) / Julien Ingrassia (FRA) - #1   Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR) - #33   Kalle Rovanperä (FIN) / Jonne Halttunen (FIN) - #69     Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) - #11   Ott Tänak (EST) / Martin Järveoja (EST) - #8   Craig Breen (IRL) / Paul Nagle (IRL) - #42     M-Sport Ford WRT Gus Greensmith (GBR) / Chris Patterson (IRL) - #44   Adrien Fourmaux (FRA) / Alexandre Coria (FRA) - #16   2021 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS The provisional classifications for all the WRC championships are available via the following link: https://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2021/standings   World Rally Championship Rally Finland WRC SEASON 2021 Sport Rallies 1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2021Rally Finland01 Friday, September 24, 2021 - 11:22am Friday, September 24, 2021 - 11:22am