Lindholm rules out WRC2 success with Hyundai on home soil
Emil Lindholm believes a top-three finish is a “realistic target” on this week’s Secto Rally Finland – the 27-year-old’s home round of the FIA World Rally Championship’s WRC2 support series.
Lindholm will take on the ‘Gravel Grand Prix’ as a Hyundai Motorsport-supported driver for his second consecutive appearance at the wheel of the manufacturer’s i20 N Rally2 supermini.
The reigning WRC2 champion returns to the Jyvaskyla-based event in good shape having podiumed on three of his last four outings with team-mate Reeta Hamalainen.
The most recent came on last month’s Rally Estonia where they came home third in WRC2 in a field that included Oliver Solberg, Gus Greensmith, Andreas Mikkelsen and Sami Pajari in Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars, and Rovert Virves in a M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Despite his impressive start to life with Hyundai, and his familiarity with the high-speed gravel roads of his native country, Lindholm is keeping his expectations very much in check.
“Rally Finland is one of the most demanding rallies of the year,” he said. “In some ways, it is similar to Estonia but the roads are a bit wider and faster; you need to be super committed. If you start lifting, or left-foot braking, you will immediately lose time.
“The mentality you need to have here is different to others – it is like a sprint race from beginning to end. To gain an advantage you need to be on point in every corner, because everyone is pushing to the limit, so you need to be a perfectionist with every turn.
“The competition in Finland is incredibly fast and we expect the fight will be just as tough as Estonia. I would love to win but a realistic target would be another podium,” added Lindholm.
“We aim to continue improving; we saw on Saturday in Estonia that our pace was closing in on the frontrunners, so I hope we will be able to carry on that path and get even better.”
Ahead of round nine, Yohan Rossel tops the standings – although he has decided not to nominate Rally Finland as one of his points-scoring rounds. Lindholm is currently fourth, 18 points in arrears of the Frenchman’s Citroen C3 Rally2.
WRC2 numbers for Rally Finland are boosted by the return of Adrien Fourmaux (Ford Fiesta Rally2), whilst Nikolay Gryazin, Lauri Joona and Jari Huttunen start in a trio of Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars.
