It was Meeke’s second win of the season, after his success in Portugal back in May, and the third of his WRC career, and came after a dominant performance in his Abu Dhabi Total WRT-run Citroen DS3 WRC, the Ulsterman winning seven stages and posting 14 top-three times in total.
“What a result!” Meeke said. “What can I say… it’s been an exceptional weekend – something just clicked from the first stage.
“It’s a bit crazy to be honest. This is the home of rallying and Ouninpohja is the holy grail of rally stages. To win it as we did – incredible.
“I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a kid and I felt like that again, just playing and having fun.
“This morning I had to take my brain, yesterday morning I left it in the hotel. We’ve always known the DS 3 was strong here but I’ve always been wary as I’ve only been able to hang onto the coat tails of Jari-Matti and Seb [Ogier].
“It’s been a team effort in the car too – Paul’s done an incredible job – a top, top job.
“I might had a beer tonight.”
Meeke moved into the lead in the first ‘proper’ test on Friday, with Ott Tanak his closest rival until a suspension problem in SS5 dropped the DMACK WRT man back to tenth.
It was then a two-way scrap with Latvala, with Meeke making the most of his better road position to conclude the first full day of competition with an 18.1 second advantage.
On Saturday, Meeke pushed on, winning the first run though the legendary Ouninpohja stage by 13.4 seconds and concluding the morning loop with his lead doubled to 36.4secs.
Two more stage wins followed on the repeat – including again going quickest in Ouninpohja – with the Ulsterman now 41secs ahead going into the overnight halt and able to cruise through the final day.
Meanwhile, Latvala had to settle for second in his Volkswagen Polo WRC unable to make it a third consecutive home win, in part due to his road position and also mindful of the situation in the Manufacturers’ Championship after team-mate Sebastien Ogier got stuck in a ditch in SS10 on Friday and lost over 15 minutes, dropping from third to 56th position.
“I have to say I’m a little bit disappointed,” Latvala noted. “I thought I could win this event but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get the best feeling today and I could not get the Power Stage. My driving just wasn’t on the same level as last year, but at least we got good points.”
Ireland’s Craig Breen took his inaugural WRC podium finish in his DS 3 WRC, despite coming under pressure from Tanak and Thierry Neuville, winning the penultimate test to help ensure he held on.
“I can’t believe it! It’s been such a road to get here!” said Breen, after taking P3 in only his fourth event in a WRC car. “I’m missing the main man [Gareth Roberts] and I know he’s looking down on this now. Thank you so much everybody. I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved.”
Behind, Neuville had to settle for fourth in his Hyundai, albeit only 4.6secs off Breen, and only 2.3secs up on team-mate Hayden Paddon in fifth. Neuville did win the event ending Power Stage, however, 1.1secs up on Paddon and 1.5secs up on Latvala in third, which was some consolation.
“It was, I would say, the maximum,” Neuville said post-SS24. “I tried my best and it was a very tight fight. We were on the limit all weekend. We were struggling with settings but a shame we could not fight for the win. We did our best.”
M-Sport’s Mads Ostberg was sixth ahead of VW Motorsport II pilot Andreas Mikkelsen in seventh.
Esapekka Lappi took eighth and the WRC2 win, 41.7secs up on closest class rival Teemu Suinen in P10 overall, with Kevin Abbring, standing in for the injured Dani Sordo, sandwiched between the two WRC2 runners on his debut with the new generation Hyundai i20 WRC.
Of the rest, Elfyn Evans and Henning Solberg were 11th and 12th, with Ogier 24th and failing to score any Drivers’ points after his “stupid mistake” on Friday. His lead in the Drivers’ Championship, however, is only cut by 6 points as his nearest rival – Mikkelsen – only finished in seventh.
In terms of retirements, Tanak crashed out on the final day in SS22, while pushing to overhaul Breen for third. He had dropped to tenth after his suspension issue on Friday morning, but battled back despite two punctures – one on Friday afternoon and the second on Saturday morning.
Saturday’s first loop claimed both Lorenzo Bertelli and M-Sport’s Eric Camilli. Bertelli crashed into a ditch in Ouninpohja 1 (SS13) with the stage neutralised as a result. Similarly, Paijala 1 (SS14) was also stopped, but this time after Camilli had a big accident 2.1kms in. He had been ninth overall prior to his exit.
Yazeed Al-Rajhi also failed to finish due to an accident, retiring his Fiesta RS WRC car on day one in SS8.
The World Rally Championship now heads to Germany next month, with that event – the first proper asphalt round of the season – running from August 18-21.
Story: crash.net
