So many World Rally Championship drivers long to become a Rally Finland winner. Elfyn Evans has now done it twice.
Last weekend was one of the best we’ve seen from Evans ever in his career – certainly his peak form in a Rally1 car.
But what did his victory, and a dire weekend for basically all of the pre-event favorites, tell us about the current state of affairs in the WRC?
Here’s what we learned from Rally Finland 2023:
Rovanpera’s still (just about) catchable
If Kalle Rovanperä hadn’t thrown his rivals a lifeline and crashed out of his home round of the world championship, a 25-point championship lead with four rounds to go would probably be viewed very differently.
But momentum, and context, is key.
In registering a big fat zero in Finland, the energy has dissipated from Rovanperä’s challenge just as his closest rival, Elfyn Evans, swaggered to a dominant victory and a big maximum 30-point haul.
Evans was very keen to stress his classy win here doesn’t mean he’s suddenly turned a massive corner with the Rally1 car, and Rovanperä still has a decent points lead.
But it’s no longer looking unassailable like it did after Estonia. Things can change in the blink of an eye as Rovanperä found out to his cost last weekend.
Tanak’s out of the title race
Although mathematically the 2019 world champion still has a shot at a second world crown, realistically the fight is now, at best, a three-horse race.
And Ott Tänak isn’t one of those horses.
After the galling disappointment of that five-minute penalty in Estonia and subsequent low-point score, Tänak needed a big result in Finland to rescue any dwindling hopes of becoming 2023 world champion.
As it transpired, he left Finland with even less than Estonia – nothing.
There are still 120 points on the table, but with a 66-point deficit to Rovanperä – and a 30-point gap between him and third-placed Thierry Neuville – it would take the most almighty of almighty comebacks for Tänak to turn that around.
Neuville’s fast-rally slump is cured
Before either Rally Estonia or Finland happened, Thierry Neuville would’ve grabbed second place on both in a heartbeat.
“Definitely,” he assured DirtFish.
Given the narrative surrounding Neuville and his lack of performance on fast-gravel rallies, nobody would have predicted that the Hyundai driver would take the second most points from rounds eight and nine.
Yet that’s exactly what he did.
For sure there was some disappointment on Neuville’s side not to fully capitalize on the gift Rovanperä presented as Evans proved too fast for Neuville to challenge once the world champion was out.
But in the wider context, Neuville can be nothing but pleased, and even proud, of what he’s achieved in the last two weeks. If he doesn’t become world champion this year, it won’t be because of his lack of fast-gravel speed – and for a few years that was a very real chink in his armor.
Estonia was just a blip for Katsuta
It was sad to see Takamoto Katsuta so low after Estonia. Understandable given his pace was nowhere near what anybody expected, but still sad.
A Rally Finland podium was the perfect way to banish those memories.
Katsuta looked rejuvenated on what he considers to be his second home rally. A strong stage win on the rally’s first forest test was proof that he had managed to turn a corner from his slump in Estonia.
And that fight with Teemu Suninen – who was also impressive considering this was just his second WRC rally in a Rally1 car – was epic! Katsuta was fast but controlled, and even calculated as he devised the perfect battle plan of where to push with assistance from team-mate and good friend Rovanperä.
Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala said he wanted to see Katsuta return to the podium. What better way to do it than on Rally Finland, and two weeks after one of his worst performances of late.
M-Sport facing more engine questions
Ott Tänak’s engine-related retirement wasn’t a total mechanical failure. A heavy impact with bedrock broke his sump guard and allowed all of the engine’s oil to escape, so it’s little wonder it started to sound like a box of spanners.
But it was all a touch too ironic for M-Sport after that famous engine change in Estonia when a brand-new unit failed.
The fact that Pierre-Louis Loubet’s car then developed an engine-related problem (which has thus far gone unexplained with Loubet not even quoted at all in M-Sport’s post-event press release) on the final day too leads to some key questions, and none of them positive from an M-Sport perspective.
For its media portal to be dominated by pictures of its Fiesta Rally2 rather than the Puma Rally1 Hybrid rather sums up M-Sport’s Rally Finland.
All in all it’s been a rough and bruising couple of rallies for the semi-works outfit. Let’s hope it can return to the front when the going gets rough and bruising for the Acropolis next month.
Greensmith joins Solberg as WRC2 title long-shot
Ever since Oliver Solberg retired from the lead of Rally Estonia, his WRC2 title shot has looked rather remote. There was certainly an element of regret as he crossed the line in Finland as the fastest Rally2 car, which would have been a handy points boost had he elected to score points last week.
But he’s not the only early season heavyhitter to find himself slipping out of contention.
With a victory straight out the box in México and then another in Portugal, Gus Greensmith announced himself as a real favorite for the 2023 WRC2 crown. But since his heavy crash in Sardinia when he wasn’t competing for points, the wind has been knocked out of his sails.
Frustrated by how he was driving in Finland, Greensmith was an early ninth before he began to find his form and climb up to fifth. But then a big rock on a rutted square-left spelt the end of his weekend as it tipped his Škoda into a roll.
Any low score in WRC2 this season will be punished, particularly when it’s a zero. And especially when Greensmith already had a sub-par result after a puncture-ridden run in Croatia.
He’s by no means fully out of it (he’s certainly in a better position than Solberg) but with Andreas Mikkelsen continuing to hoover up points, Yohan Rossel sitting pretty, Sami Pajari gathering momentum and the wily Kajetan Kajetanowicz lurking, Greensmith needs wins and wins only if he’s to become champion.
