Latvala is competing in the top class of Finnish Rally Championship for the first time in a while, alongside co-driver Juho Hänninen. The pair will be driving Toyota’s Rally2 car, the same vehicle they used in last summer’s Jyväskylä WRC rally.
The roads around Savonlinna are very familiar to Hänninen, as he is originally from Punkaharju, which now belongs to Savonlinna. For Latvala, however, the Savonlinna route is entirely new. Another new experience for him was Olavinlinna Castle, which provided a unique setting for the rally pre-event festivities.
“I’m feeling good and excited. I had never been to Olavinlinna before, so this was a new experience for me, just as these roads in the Savonlinna area are new to me. But they are really great,” Latvala told RallyJournal.com.
“There are a lot of sections here that remind me of Jyväskylä and the Myhinpää special stage. Especially the third and seventh stages have roads like that. The conditions might be a bit challenging. It’s getting quite warm now, so there could be a lot of slush. But we just have to be careful with that,” Latvala continued.
The Savonlinna Finnish Championship Rally marks the end of the winter season. South Savo is still quite wintry, but in recent days, there hasn’t been much frost, and the sun has been melting parts of the stages during the daytime.
“The route is really nice, but I’m a bit disappointed about the weather. If it were just a little colder and the sun hadn’t melted parts of the stages, we would have absolutely perfect conditions for a winter rally. But the weather is what it is, nothing can be done about that. Overall, though, the route is good,” Latvala reflected.
Heading into the competition, Latvala was hesitant to set any firm targets, but it’s clear that his co-driver, Juho Hänninen, would love to secure victory on his home roads. The topic has been discussed quite a bit already.
“This is a really big event for Juho. We’ve been talking about it since September. Juho has been strongly emphasising to me that we need to go fast here,” Latvala laughed.
“I was already trying to get into the right rhythm in testing, and the car feels great, but the tests also reminded me that if you drive onto slush, it gets really slippery. You have to stay patient. You have to go fast, but you can’t get too carried away if the conditions become tricky,” Latvala concluded.
