Lancia Corse HF seventh at Rally Finland's tough gravel, stays second in WRC2 Teams' Championship
Lancia Corse HF left Rally Finland with a seventh-place finish and valuable development data, keeping the team second in the WRC2 Teams' Championship.
- 7th
- 5
- 2nd
What Happened
Secto Rally Finland lived up to its reputation as one of the most spectacular and demanding events on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar. The legendary 'Rally of the Thousand Lakes' featured ultra-fast gravel roads, blind crests and huge jumps, with significantly revised special stages compared with previous editions. Rapidly changing weather conditions kept grip levels evolving and pushed drivers to the limit, and several leading crews were involved in incidents.
Lancia Corse HF continued its development programme by fielding five Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale cars on the demanding surface. The team gathered highly encouraging data while expanding its experience on one of the fastest and most specialised gravel events in world rallying. As expected, the battle for victory was largely contested by the Nordic specialists, particularly the Finnish crews, whose knowledge of the roads proved decisive.
- Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov finished seventh, narrowly missing a top-five result.
- Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand produced another encouraging display.
- Léo Rossel and Guillaume Mercoiret continued their steady progress with a solid performance.
- Pablo Sarrazin and Yannick Roche completed a valuable learning weekend.
- Conner Martell and Alessandro Gelsomino also gained experience on one of the toughest rallies.
“Although Rally Finland was not one of our nominated scoring events for the Drivers' Championship, it proved to be an extremely valuable weekend for the entire team. It was a very challenging rally, but one that allowed us to make further progress in understanding and developing the Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale.”
Rally Finland marks another important milestone in the development of the Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale. The experience and data gathered over the weekend provide valuable foundations for the next rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship. Lancia Corse HF currently occupy second place in the WRC2 Teams' Championship, keeping the team firmly in contention for the title as the season enters its decisive phase.
Previously from Lancia
Lancia Corse HF had entered five Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale cars for Rally Finland. The team arrived at the weekend sitting second in the WRC2 Teams' Championship.
Background drawn from MotorClaw's earlier coverage of Lancia's official releases.
Why this matters
Rally Finland is one of the fastest and most specialised gravel events in the WRC, so the result signals that the Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale is becoming more competitive. Lancia Corse HF remains second in the WRC2 Teams' Championship, keeping the team in contention for the title as the season enters its final events. For rally fans, it shows Lancia's return to top-level competition is on track.
Terms in This Story
- WRC2
- The second-tier World Rally Championship class for production-based Rally2 cars.
- Rally2
- A category of rally cars based on production models, used in national and international championships.
- pace notes
- Detailed verbal descriptions of the road ahead, prepared by the co-driver to help the driver anticipate corners and hazards.
Summarised from the linked release; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.