The 22-year-old Finn is competing this year in the Italian Gravel Rally Championship to gain experience. He began the season in a Hyundai Rally2 car, but for Sunday’s Rally Adriatico, he switched to Toyota’s new Rally2 machine.
Korhola showed promising pace in the qualifying stage and set his sights on the top positions in the nine-stage event. However, he ran into serious trouble right from the start.
“Unfortunately, the rally didn’t go as planned. On the very first stage, there was so much dust that I couldn’t see a thing. We had just a one-minute start interval, while most other drivers got two minutes,” Korhola explained in a press release.
The second stage proved to be the final one for Korhola and co-driver Kristian Temonen, as they were forced to retire after going off the road.
“About two kilometres in, there was a left-hander that turned out to be much more slippery than I had anticipated. The car slid wide, and we hit the end of a culvert quite hard with the rear. The damage was too severe for us to continue,” Korhola said.
Korhola’s season in the Italian gravel series has so far been a struggle – three rallies, three retirements.
He’ll have a quick chance to bounce back: his season continues next weekend in Sicily, where he’ll compete in the legendary Targa Florio Rally, this time on asphalt and back in the Hyundai. Patric Öhman will join him as co-driver for that event.
Victory at the Rally Adriatico went to Alberto Battistolli, who edged out Tommaso Ciuffi by 6.2 seconds. Polish driver Mikolaj Marczyk completed the podium in the gravel event.
