Finnish driver Jussi Valimaki, the reigning FIA Asia Pacific Rally Champion, won the Pirelli Rally (5 August), the traditional pre-Neste Oil Rally Finland warm-up at Tampere. He was at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC, the car he will drive as a privateer on his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship two weeks later.
The one-day event was noted for a spectacular crash by Kosti Katajamaki and Timo Alanen however, which caused the stage concerned to be cancelled. Katajamaki was also using this event as a pre-Finland test, where he will drive a Ford Focus WRC as part of the Stobart VK Ford M-Sport team.
Valimaki took the lead on the third stage of the event and didn't look back. Top foreign entry on the event was Estonian Urmo Aava, who won the Super 1600 class.Janne Tuohino (who will drive a Citroen Xsara WRC on the Jyvaskyla event) was seeded number two in a Peugeot 206WRC but failed to finish, while the Group N driver Juho Hanninen (who also drives a Mitsubishi WRC05 on Rally Finland) finished third with an older-model Mitsubishi WRC.
wrc.com
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