A mysterious engine issue, which plagued him almost from the start of the event, sapped his speed. Korhonen finished sixth in the WRC2 category, which is a decent result in a high-calibre event, but a time deficit of over three minutes to the leaders left him pensive.
“This event was quite a bummer. There was a bit of everything. We never really reached where we wanted to be. The engine problems started on Friday. Sometimes it felt like it was working, and sometimes it wasn’t. It’s been heavily examined,” Korhonen told RallyJournal.com.
“The engine consumes a lot of oil and breathes heavily. On the Power Stage, it also stalled at the start and smoked. It’s definitely not working perfectly, but it’s impossible to say how much we lost because of it.”
Korhonen said he gave his all on many stages, but the time gap to the leaders kept growing.
“Some stages went as they should driving-wise, but we didn’t see it on the clock. There were also some bad stages driving-wise. It was incredibly difficult. We really need to delve into where such large gaps are coming from,” Korhonen summarised.
“It’s quite frustrating. We certainly lost something, but how much, I don’t know. If we look for something positive, we kept the tyres intact and got all the kilometres under our belt. That was a good thing.”
Next, Korhonen will compete in Rally Italy Sardinia in a few weeks. He will be driving the same Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car, but the Finnish driver would like a major engine overhaul for his car.
“Hopefully, it will be clear if there was a bigger problem with the engine and how much we potentially lost because of it. Sometimes we tried to push hard in the rally. It was a bit frustrating when it didn’t show. We’ll go to Sardinia with a fresh approach and hopefully a new engine,” Korhonen pondered.
“Of course, I have to remember this was my second time here and the first time with such a car. Perhaps I don’t fully understand how fast you can go in certain places and make use of the ruts. Sometimes it felt like I couldn’t go faster with my skills.”
