Moncet: We can take lots of positives from Rally Finland
The South Korean marque claimed its first-ever win on an event nicknamed ‘the gravel Grand Prix’ thanks to a stirring performance by 2019 World Rally champions Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja. In the build-up to the Jyvaskyla-based meeting – the second consecutive loose surface counter after last month’s Rally Estonia – all bets were on another comfortable Toyota victory, but that failed to materialise.
Since it returned to the sport’s top flight in 2017, Toyota has dominated proceedings in the Nordic country while Hyundai has traditionally struggled to get its cars dialled into the fast and undulating forest roads. However, that stranglehold was finally broken on Sunday as Tanak held on to claim his second perfect score of the 2022 season to take his Rally Finland triumph count to three – an achievement that sees him draw level with the likes of nine-time World Rally Champion, Sebastien Loeb.
“We have finally made it!” said Julien Moncet. “Ott and Martin put in an incredible performance all weekend, showing their pace and the winning performance of our Hyundai i20 N Rally1 car. We have had no reliability issues throughout the event and can take a lot of positives from the rally as a whole. This team has never given up since the start of the season, pushing hard despite some difficulties.”
Not everyone in the Hyundai camp was happy, however, with Thierry Neuville’s lack of confidence in the set-up of the I20 N Rally1 affecting his speed in both the fast and slow sections of the Rally Finland route. “It was a tough weekend for us, but we knew that would be the case coming here, like in Estonia,” said the Belgian. “We have had two rallies in a row with a similar profile, and these are conditions where I have always struggled a bit.
“Ott has put in a good performance this weekend; he was on the pace from the start and once you’re in the game you can keep the rhythm. We could see on his face that he’s had to work hard; it’s a great result for him and the entire team,” he added.
Meanwhile, Teemu Suninen has been stripped of his comprehensive victory in WRC2 – the World Rally Championship’s leading support series - after post-event scrutiny checks found the front bumper on his Hyundai I20 N Rally2 car was underweight. The 28-year-old thought he had returned his first win of the year on home soil by 7.7 seconds from countryman Emil Lindholm – a margin that could have been considerably greater but for Suninen’s I20 car briefly losing power on Saturday morning.
But just hours after celebrating, it was communicated in a stewards' decision that the component was 3,931g - well below the minimum allowed weight of 4,510g required to comply with homologation. Suninen’s team manager Pablo Marcos and Hyundai Customer Racing manager Andrea Cisotti accepted the bumper - a component that had not been produced by Hyundai Motorsport - was underweight and explained it had been fitted to the winning car in error by Red Grey, the team which prepares Suninen’s car on behalf of Hyundai Motorsport. As per Article 15 of the FIA's International Sporting Code, Suninen has the right to appeal the decision.
