Roope Korhonen takes his third win of the season and tightens his grip on the title – “We didn’t give Teemu any chance”

On Friday, Teemu Asunmaa, driving a Škoda, was holding the top spot, but on Saturday, Toyota driver Korhonen put a stop to the Finnish driver’s run. Korhonen clocked the fastest time on all six stages of the day.

Korhonen secured the overall win with a margin of 14.1 seconds over Asunmaa.

“It was quite a successful day. Yesterday we were a bit behind due to a poor tyre choice. Today everything went well, and we didn’t give Teemu any chances. An important win for the championship. This was the plan, and we executed it,” Korhonen summarised in Moottoriurheilu.tv’s YouTube broadcast.

“The whole day went well and I’m very happy with my driving. It just doesn’t progress as it should. I didn’t expect such a day. On loose gravel, you just can’t move forward as well as needed. I’m satisfied with my own performance,” Asunmaa commented.

Third place in the competition went to Hyundai driver Benjamin Korhola, who lost about half a minute on Friday after taking an overly long jump that damaged the car. Korhola finished nearly a minute behind the leader.

“The result doesn’t fully satisfy me. There could have been better chances if we hadn’t messed up on Friday. We were pushing at the limit the whole time. The stage times don’t quite match how the driving felt,” Korhola explained.

Competing in the SM5 category with a Toyota, Juha Salo finished fourth, just 1.8 seconds ahead of Tommi Jylhä. Jooa Iivaria was sixth in the rally. Salo won his class, while Arttu Lähdeniemi took second place by a narrow margin over Rasmus Tuominen.

Ville Vatanen clinched the SM2 class victory and achieved an impressive seventh place overall. Vatanen’s performance in his debut race in the SM2 class was notable, as was Henri Altomaa’s, who finished second in the class, 12.6 seconds behind.

Results of the Lahti Future Rally: