Suninen and Lindholm both retired on the last special stage of the morning loop. Before encountering issues, Suninen was in fourth place in the WRC2 class and Lindholm was in 13th.
Suninen’s Hyundai Rally2 car broke down on the second run of the Tula stage.
“Unfortunately it’s game over for us at least for the day. We had to stop at SS8 due to technical issues with the car,” Suninen reported on social media.
Lindholm’s car suffered a radiator failure when the front bumper scraped the ground, and eventually, a piece of the bumper broke off and punctured the radiator.
Lindholm and co-driver Reeta Hämäläinen managed to patch the radiator, but their journey still ended prematurely.
“From this hill, you can see the lake, but it’s definitely a five-kilometre walk. We plugged the radiator, but we didn’t have enough water for it. I reviewed the in-car footage multiple times and I’m amazed this happened. Just bad luck,” Lindholm summarised in his statement.
The WRC2 class is currently led by Finnish driver Sami Pajari, competing in a Toyota, ahead of Spain’s Jan Solans. Pajari has a lead of just under a minute over his closest rival, with four special stages remaining on Saturday.
