Friday's technical problem dropped Lauri Joona away from podium fights-"Good learning"

Lauri Joona's race weekend in Greece was full of drama. Friday's suspension failure caused by the challenging gravel roads dropped the Finnish driver from the points.

Competing in the WRC2 class of the World Rally Championship in his first full season, Lauri Joona went to the Acropolis Rally with the goal of achieving the largest possible points pot. The race started quite decently but unfortunately the trip of Joona and co-driver Ville Mannisenmäki ended on Friday earlier than planned.

- On the fourth special stage about a kilometer from the start we hit a bump and it jumped quite a bit. We came down at a bad angle and something went broke on the rear of the car. The only option was to leave Friday's race there because the damage was so massive and that the car would not be damaged any more. This would allow us to continue the race on Saturday. Bad luck, Joona said about the annoying and rare interruption for him.

With Friday's retirement the ranking in the WRC2 class results fell far from the top and the focus of the race changed from increasing the points pot to driving good special stage times. Saturday started well and the duo's times were at the top of the three. Then the Greek harsh and unpredictable gravel roads changed the course of the race again. Joona and Mannisenmäki were able to practice changing tires in "field conditions" during the final race.

- In no case can you be satisfied with the race or the ranking, it's not what we set out to get. The positive thing is that all the sections that could be driven without problems had good times and we were among the top three. Some of the tire failures were due to the fact that when the positions were no longer being driven, it was decided to test what the car and tires could withstand in these conditions, said Joona after the race.

The Acropolis rally was the seventh World Cup rally this season for Lauri Joona, who competes in the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 car of the TGS Motorsport team. In the WRC2 class, it is possible to collect points from seven races and the best six positions count towards the final points. Greece's final result and being out of the points means that Joona now has the points for the season. At the moment, they qualify for fourth place in the class.

- A positive and upbeat season in all the way with two podium finishes. The level has steadily risen all the time, and a lot has been learned. A big thank you to everyone who made this season possible!