The 19-stage rally enabled the team to gather useful experience of its new car on high-speed gravel roads with Huttunen and Oliver Solberg on driving duties. Huttunen had already secured a maiden WRC2 win with the car in Ypres in August with co-driver Mikko Lukka, but the fast Finnish roads offered a brand-new challenge.
 
Preparations were heavily disrupted following a crash in pre-event testing, which required substantial work to get the car ready in time for Friday morning shakedown. Thankfully, it was a generally trouble-free three days of rallying for the Finns after that, which included a stage win on Saturday’s final test, Harju.
 
Alongside new co-driver Craig Drew, Solberg started Rally Finland with the aim of gathering experience in his first participation in the legendary event. Unfortunately, he crashed out of the rally on Saturday morning, rolling his car on the opening stage of the day, Kakaristo-Hassi. The crew was unharmed in the accident, but the car had sustained too much damage for them to continue.
 
Crew Notes: Jari Huttunen / Mikko Lukka (#21 Hyundai i20 N Rally2)

• Third WRC2 podium of the season for the Finns after wins in Sardinia and Belgium
• Pre-event crash hampered preparations, but the crew still scored a stage win in SS15

 
Huttunen said: “It was not our weekend, but I’d like to say thanks to the whole team for their support in difficult circumstances. The pre-event crash was far from ideal preparation and meant that we were on the back foot from the start. We still gave our home event as much as we could. We didn’t really have the best set-up on Friday, and I lost my rear spoiler on a jump. Saturday was a solid day, we made some changes for the second loop, and took a stage win in Harju. Then, today, we focused on securing third place. Aside from a heavy landing on the Power Stage jump, it was a smooth finish, but not the result we’d hoped for.”
 
Crew Notes: Oliver Solberg / Craig Drew (#27 Hyundai i20 N Rally2)

• Disappointing retirement for the crew in their first event together
• Crash on Saturday morning’s SS7 caused irreparable car damage

 
Solberg said: “I am so sorry and disappointed with what happened, especially after we had such a positive result on Arctic Rally Finland at the start of the season. I came to this event with the target of gaining experience and, sadly, I was unable to achieve that. Hyundai Motorsport and RedGrey worked so hard to prepare a very good car and the test we had was perfect. We had a reasonably positive Friday; Craig and I worked very well together during the daylight stages. The accident on Saturday’s first stage came in quite a fast corner, I was a little bit too fast and the car went into the trees and rolled. I’m just gutted for everyone that it ended our rally.”  
 
Hyundai Motorsport Team Principal Andrea Adamo said: “It was always going to be a challenging weekend in our first Rally Finland with the new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car. Oliver had never done this rally before, and it was his first event with a new co-driver, while Jari had a huge crash in the build-up to the event. When something like that happens, it is then difficult to be in the right mental state, to extract the final tenths-of-a-second, which we know is the level needed in this event. We take away a podium, but it was not really a representative weekend for our two WRC2 crews.”
 
Final Overall Classification WRC2 –Rally Finland
 

 
2021 WRC2 Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 10
 

 
2021 FIA WRC2 Championship for Teams’ Standings
After round 10
 

 
 
All results remain subject to official FIA confirmation.