Mitsubishi Motors Motorsports Neste Rally Finland Report

Neste Rally Finland Leg 3
10th Round FIA WRC 2006
20 August 2006


Finland’s Jussi Valimaki turned in a fine drive to clinch seventh place in the Neste Oils Rally Finland, which ended in Jyvaskyla this afternoon. After three days of flat-out driving, the 31-year-old Valimaki was delighted to take points on his home round of the World Rally Championship aboard the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05.

Valimaki has already demonstrated the potential he and Mitsubishi offer earlier this season, with a sensational fifth place on Rally Italia, his debut in the Lancer. He also made the top 10 on the Acropolis Rally in June. Rally Finland, however, was the focus for Valimaki and co-driver Jarkko Kallioleppo this week. There was a strong Mitsubishi presence for this 10th round of the series, with Daniel Carlsson/Tomas Thorszelius and Juha Hanninen/Marko Sallinen also present in Lancer WRC05s. Carlsson was hoping for a repeat of the third place he managed when he drove a Mitsubishi for the first time on the Swedish Rally.


Carlsson was immediately on the pace, blasting his Mitsubishi into an early fifth overall. Unfortunately for the Swede, his strong run in the car would come to an end on the final significant corner of the first leg. Carlsson said: “I went off on a right-hander and hit a tree. The car was quite badly damaged, too much to carry on in the rally. It’s so annoying, this was the last corner of the real stages today [leg 1], all we had left was the superspecial in Killeri. I had been happy with the car all day and my co-driver and I were looking forward to starting tomorrow and having another attack. It was my mistake, the car had run really well. I am so disappointed.”


Despite Carlsson’s retirement, Valimaki and Hanninen were both handily placed to move up the leaderboard through legs two and three in Finland. Hanninen, driving a World Rally Car for the first time, would not make the start of Saturday morning, however. He was excluded from the rally for not wearing the correct fireproof underwear in the stages.

This left Valimaki upholding the honour of Mitsubishi. He drove exceptionally well to play himself into a fight for sixth place with fellow Finn Janne Tuohino. Eventually Tuohino proved to be too quick for Valimaki, who delivered his trouble-free Lancer to the finish. Valimaki’s seventh overall and two World Rally Championship drivers’ points was his best ever result on an event he’s tackled seven times before.


Valimaki said: “It’s a shame I couldn’t keep the fight going with Janne today, it was tough. I missed this rally last year, but really it feels like I haven’t been on some of these stages for 10 years. It’s not easy to remember all of the roads and you need to remember them very well when you are flying over the jumps. The rally was good, though. The car was fantastic – no problems. We had a puncture on SS16, but that was the only trouble.”


Juha Hakkinen/Harri Kaapro and Rory Galligan/Greg Shinnors maintained Mitubishi’s presence in the Group N category, taking third and fourth in their Lancer Evolution IXs. The pair both impressed with competitive times throughout the event, but were unable to head-off the challenge from rally legend Markku Alen's son Anton and Sweden's Patrik Flodin. Both Hakkinen and Galligan enjoyed trouble-free runs in there Mitsubishis, with Irishman Galligan delighted with his performance on his debut in Finland. He said: "It's an amazing rally. The speeds here are quite incredible. I'm not pushing to the maximum, I'm trying to learn the roads and stay safe - we're here to make the finish, that's the priority. The only problem for us was a brief off on SS19 this morning, when we slid into a farmyard!"

Ford driver Marcus Gronholm clinched his sixth Rally Finland win in seven years, taking a comfortable victory from this year’s World Rally Championship points leader Sebastien Loeb (Citroen). Third place went to Ford’s second Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen.

The next round of the WRC is Rally Japan (September 1-3).


(story and photos: MMSP)