Emil Lindholm: 'Rally will show where we stand with our speed'
Team GRX Volkswagen’s Emil Lindholm and Mikael Korhonen are starting season’s domestic highlight Rally Finland with confident minds. Lindholm, reached from the reconnaissance day, told that they have had good finishing tests under them and everything is ready for the upcoming weekend.
“On Monday we drove a preliminary test and checked that everything is in order. Feeling to my car was good. We also got clarification for a few adjustments on our car that we had been thinking about in advance. We are excitedly waiting for the upcoming rally”.
In Rally Finland the WRC2-class level is very competitive. On the same starting line there is multipledriverswhocouldsucceedandwinthewholeclass.LindholmandKorhonencamesecond in WRC2-class last February in Rally Sweden. The twosome hasn’t set a result goal for their home rally.
“Special stage Leustu is new to us as well as a few new parts on other special stages. We have driven around 80 percent of the route previously. This is our third time in Jyväskylä so it is a little easier to get into it.”
“We haven’t set a result goal and our plan is to driveon our own terms. I am not worrying about the final results. Let the rally show where we are compared to the others. I think speed wise we are going to have a good weekend”, Lindholmsmiles.
This year drivers competing for WRC points in Rally Finland can only use medium and hard tires, decision made by the tire manufacturer. Rally Finland has been previously among other World Championship Rallies that have competed with soft tires.
“The roads are dry and hard causing a lot of loose gravel and sand on the surface which makes the roads slippery under the tires. On the other hand the new little road sections were in a better shape than we expected”.
“There is a little less grip and because our starting number is 47 we can’t drive everywhere all out. On the route there is parts where we have to drive nicely in the middle of the road. This rally also requires patience”, Lindholm reminds.
Rally Finland starts on Thursday evening at 19:00 in Jyväskylä’s Harju (2,31km) city special stage. Rally continues on Friday when there are ten special stages on the program (126,55km). The longest day of the rally is Saturday around Jämsä where there is eight special stages driven for a total of 132,92km. The final day on Sunday there is still four special stages (45,74km). The rally ends at Jyväskylä Paviljonki at 16:00.
