Joona remained in the thick of the WRC2 fight after Friday and climbed to second place on Saturday behind fellow Finn Emil Lindholm. When Lindholm crashed out on Sunday morning’s second stage, Joona looked poised to claim his maiden WRC2 victory.
But that’s not how things played out. On the very next stage, Joona suffered a puncture that dropped him out of podium contention. Ahead of the final two stages, Polish veteran Kajetan Kajetanowicz was just 11.1 seconds behind him.
The disappointment was palpable as Joona’s bid for victory unravelled in an unfortunate twist of fate.
“After Friday, we were in a good position and well within striking distance of the lead. Saturday was by no means an easy day, but we almost managed to avoid all trouble,” Joona said.
“It was a tight situation and of course we went out there to fight. We were going well, but I guess there was a rock in a rut somewhere — the rear tyre went flat. I didn’t see anything major and we didn’t hit anything. We just drove the rest of the stage with a flat tyre. At that point, we were in the lead, but we dropped to fourth,” Joona continued.
After being handed a 30-second time penalty, Joona’s final result in WRC2 was sixth. The class victory — following a chaotic sequence of events — went to Italy’s Roberto Daprà, ahead of Kajetanowicz and Martin Prokop. Oliver Solberg was the fastest Rally2 driver in the rally, but he wasn’t eligible for WRC2 points.
“Of course, the end result is disappointing, but that’s rallying sometimes. For once, I had a great opportunity to get a strong result — but next time we’ll show what we can do. This definitely gives me motivation heading into the next rally,” Joona promised.
While the event ended in disappointment for Joona, it was also a letdown for fellow Finn Roope Korhonen. The driver, who has been strong in the European Rally Championship, retired already on the second special stage. Korhonen rejoined the rally later and went on to set the fastest time in class on five stages, but missed out on scoring good points.
“Of course I’m frustrated about Friday and the points we lost, but our pace is at a good level, so in that sense there’s no worry. Sometimes it just gets away from you — this time it was our turn. We still took a lot of positives from the weekend and once again saw how important it is to gain experience in different conditions,” Korhonen summarised.
