Lauri Joona bags P2 in Imatra – victory slips away by just two seconds

May 24
3 min read

Lauri Joona charged to second place at the opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship summer season in Imatra. The podium finish also strengthened his hold on second place in the championship standings.

And the win was seriously close! During the winter season, Joona and co-driver Antti Linnaketo scored two podiums and one fourth-place finish, so heading into the summer rounds, the target was clear – go for the top step. After the winter campaign, Joona sat second overall in the SM standings.

Photo: Taneli Niinimäki

Imatra hosted Finnsih Rally Championship round for the first time in decades, meaning the roads were unfamiliar territory for almost everyone in the field. The fast and flowing South Karelia stages already had a strong reputation beforehand and after recce day the drivers were full of praise.

-Stages in Imatra looks absolutely mega! I can’t remember an SM-rally with roads this good. There are crests everywhere, constant direction changes, jumps – pretty much everything you could ask for. I haven’t competed here before, but we’ve tested around here and the roads and organization have always been top-notch, Joona said after recce.

Photo: Merita Mäkinen

Joona and Linnaketo started the rally as the second car on the road, right behind championship leader Esapekka Lappi. The rally took a dramatic turn already on stage two when Lappi went off.

-We backed it off a bit after that. The rhythm got slightly messed up when we saw EP in the bushes there. But we’ll keep pushing with a good feeling, Joona commented at the stage finish.

After Lappi’s retirement, Joona’s Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 had to sweep the road as the lead car for the remainder of the event. Luckily the conditions stayed favorable and Joona found himself in an intense tenths-of-a-second fight with Estonia’s Patrick Enok for the rally lead. Before the final two-stage loop, Joona held the lead by just one second.

The decisive moment came on the penultimate stage. Joona suffered slightly from running first on the road and dropped over four seconds to Enok’s benchmark time, allowing the Estonian to move into the lead.

-We pushed as hard as we could. The road definitely improves for the cars behind, so in that sense you can’t be fully satisfied. I don’t have that much experience running first on the road, but at least we gave it everything.

Although Joona upped the pace and won the final stage of the rally, the comeback fell just short. Enok claimed victory at the Imatra SM-Rally while Joona finished second only 2.4 seconds behind. Anssi Rytkönen completed the podium in third.

Photo: Taneli Niinimäki

-Of course the result stings a bit when the win was that close. Our rival was better this time and we’ll keep moving forward. I’m happy with our pace – it was at a really good level. The driving felt good all day and we were flat out the entire rally. Now it’s time to focus on the next challenge.