It might be the Monaco Grand Prix for Formula 1 fans, but for aficionados of the gravel it’s Rally Finland that ticks all the boxes. It’s the highlight of the WRC season.
This weekend will see the World Rally Championship return to Finland for the first time since 2019, and the teams and the fans can’t wait.
It’s called Rally Finland now, but the rally that many of us still know as ‘The Rally of the Thousand Lakes’ actually started life in 1951 as the Jyväskylän Suurajot, or in English, the Jyväskylä Grand Prix.
Since that time, the rally has gained cult status. Only the fastest drivers win Rally Finland.
Such is the specialised nature of the rally, with its endless fast straights and big jumps, it took 39 years for a driver outside of Finland or Sweden to take victory. That was Carlos Sainz in 1990.
A driver might only win one round of the World Rally Championship in their career, but if it’s Rally Finland, then their name is set in stone.
Esapekka Lappi burst onto the scene in 2017 with his inaugural WRC win, and he hasn’t come close to tasting WRC success since.
Still, his name is on the honour board alongside the absolute legends of the sport, names such as Timo Makinen, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Markku Alen, Ari Vatanen, Timo Salonen, Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Makinen and Marcus Gronholm.
This year’s rally will feature only three previous winners of the event: Sebastien Ogier, Lappi, and Ott Tanak, who has won the past two Rally Finlands.
Yet any advantage those drivers have could well be limited, as this is the first time in the rally’s history that it will be run in October.
Rally Finland is normally a summer event at the start of August, but COVID-19 has deemed that the 2021 version is two months later, in autumn.
“We can expect the grip from the stages to be lower than usual, and if the weather is bad it could be very slippery,” Toyota Gazoo Racing boss, Jari-Matti Latvala said.
“Another interesting element will be stages being driven in darkness, which hasn’t happened on Rally Finland since the 1990s.”
“There is a big part of the route that we haven’t seen previously, so we will need to put a lot of effort into our recce to ensure our pace notes are completely accurate,” Hyundai’s Tanak added.
“The weather could also change quite a bit, so this will keep us on our toes.”
Tanak is also looking forward to what will be the final Rally Finland for the current breed of World Rally Cars, before the new hybrid cars make their appearance in 2022.
“As the last full gravel rally with this generation of WRC cars – in my opinion, they are probably the best ever – I will definitely enjoy this event.
“Let’s see if we can take a third Rally Finland victory.”
So, who does win?
Tanak (main photo) may be the reigning champion, but it would be a brave person to bet against the sport’s hottest new talent, Kalle Rovanpera.
The young Finn demolished the opposition last time out in Greece and is expected to continue that speed on roads he knows well.
Rival team, Hyundai, has always struggled in Finland, and while their trio of Tanak, Thierry Neuville and Craig Breen all have the speed to win, it remains to be seen if their cars have improved significantly enough to challenge for victory. Many doubt that it has.
Regardless of who wins though, it promises to be a scintillating three days of competition on the WRC’s fastest roads.
Beginning on Friday night (NZ time), the rally contains 19 special stages totalling 287 competitive kilometres.
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