Lauri Joona's successful WRC2 debut in Sweden - "We are satisfied with the performance and the ranking" Lauri Joona drove in the WRC2 class of the Swedish World Rally Championship to eighth place.

Jun 8, 2024
2 min read

The second round of the World Rally Championship was held in Sweden at the weekend. For Lauri Joona from Sastamala, the competition was the first in the second highest WRC2 class of the World Series. The list of participants in the class was quite tough, so Joona and karttur Tuukka Shemeikka started the race with moderate goals.

- A realistic goal is set in the middle of the class. It's already quite hard to even get into the top ten if all the competitors are having a good race, Joona said before the start of the rally.

During the competition, the more experienced competitors suffered from bench contact and technical challenges, but Joona drove the entire four-day World Cup rally, which included 18 special stages, moderately and almost flawlessly. This paid off, and the duo was at their best already in the class fifth. In the final results, however, the experience of the others was a trump card, and the first-timer can be found in eighth place in the results. In the WRC2 Challenger series for rookie drivers, Joona is fourth after Sweden.

- It was a good race, we ran according to the goals. We made it to the top ten, even a little better, said a happy Joona at the finish line of the race.

For the second time, the MM rally around Umeå was run in almost perfect winter conditions and there were plenty of rally fans along the route.

- The roads were really fast and some went into the ruts quite badly, which is always challenging for the tires. Sometimes my own driving was a bit too careful. The watch didn't always like it, but the crew even more so. However, a lot was learned, which will definitely be useful in the future, analyzes Joona.

- It was a great competition. We are satisfied with both our own performance and the ranking. Big thanks to the team and all partners!

In Sweden, Lauri Joona and Tuukka Shemeikka competed in the same Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo in every rally championship series. The next World Championship start is not yet known, the next race in Finland is the Jyväskylä Talviralli, which concludes the winter season of the Rally SM series, at the beginning of March.