Coming off a third place in Rally Latvia and a “win” in the Super Sunday, Tänak has celebrated victory on the Central Finland gravel in 2018-2019 with Toyota and in 2022 with Hyundai.
“Rally Finland is one of my favourite events on the calendar. However, I know what a challenging and demanding event this can be and so I have a great respect for the unique characteristics of the rally’s profile,” Tänak remarks.
This season, Tänak has yet to fully harmonise with Hyundai’s Rally1 car. Nevertheless, he has shown flashes of top speed multiple times. The Estonian star emphasises that on Finland’s fast and extremely demanding stages, confidence in the car must be absolute.
“In order to be successful here you need two things: experience of the rally and confidence,” Tänak explains.
“I believe we have both of those elements going into this event and my aim is to try and take the maximum we can to consolidate the progress we made in Latvia.”
Rally Finland will be held from August 1st to 4th, featuring a total of 20 special stages covering approximately 305 kilometres.
The legendary gravel race kicks off on Thursday morning with the Ruuhimäki shakedown. The actual competition begins with the traditional Harju city stage on Thursday evening.