This month’s Arctic Rally Finland will feature the strongest World Rally Car entry since Rally Finland in 2017 with 13 cars.
The Rovaniemi-based event has strength and depth across all World Rally Championship classes, with all but 10 of the 56-car entry featuring in the main categories.
In addition to the usual factory entries from Toyota (Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta), Hyundai Motorsport (Thierry Neuville, Ott Tänak and Craig Breen) and M-Sport Ford (Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith), there are two i20 Coupe WRCs for 2C Competition pair Pierre-Louis Loubet and Oliver Solberg and two Ford Fiesta WRCs for Lorenzo Bertelli and Janpro-run Janne Tuohino.
WRC2 Monte Carlo Rally winner Andreas Mikkelsen tops the lead support series entry, with a further nine behind him – including Arctic Rally and Rally Finland winner Esapekka Lappi.
Reigning WRC3 champion Jari Huttunen makes his first appearance of the season. The Finn, confirmed as part of the Hyundai Motorsport N squad on Friday, is delighted to be part of the manufacturer’s WRC2 line-up.
“Last year we were on the WRC3 podium in every event we entered, while aiming for the win every weekend,” said the 26-year-old.
“We will have the same objective in WRC2 this year as we have many of the same rallies ahead of us, a car that I know well.
“So we have everything in place to show the same performance we did to win the WRC3 title. I’m really looking forward to starting in Arctic Rally Finland, but also to the other rallies during the season.
“Being team-mates with [Oliver] Solberg and [Ole Christian] Veiby is great. They are both very strong drivers so I look forward to competing with them on the stages.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
“My goal in rallying is to drive a WRC car in a WRC event, like Oliver is in Finland, so I have to look at them a little as my rivals when it comes to the competition.”
Former WRC regular Martin Prokop returns to the series, driving an M-Sport-run Fiesta Rally2 in WRC2.
The WRC3 is similarly star-studded, with World Rallycross champions Johan Kristoffersson (Volkswagen Polo R5) and Mattias Ekström (Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo) competing.
Leading entries
1 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota Yaris WRC)
33 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota Yaris WRC)
11 Thierry Neuville/ Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)
69 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris WRC)
18 Takamoto Katsuta/Dan Barritt (Toyota Yaris WRC)
8 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)
3 Teemu Suninen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Ford Fiesta WRC)
44 Gus Greensmith/Elliott Edmonson (Ford Fiesta WRC)
42 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)
2 Oliver Solberg/Aaron Johnston (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)
7 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Vincent Landais (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC)
12 Janne Tuohino/Reeta Hämäläinen (Ford Fiesta WRC)
37 Lorenzo Bertelli/Simone Scattolin (Ford Fiesta WRC)
Arctic Rally Finland entry breakdown
Total 56 crews
13 Priority 1 crews
10 Priority 2 crews (WRC2)
23 Priority 3 crews (WRC3)
10 Non-Priority crews
