Rally of Finland is the most spectacular and demanding rally on the Junior WRC calendar. Endless crests and high speed corners on compact gravel separate the men from the boys in Finlands beautiful green scenery and all of it runs on beautiful green GEM Fuel! Finlands Andreas Amberg and Mikko Lukka achieved an important and emotional victory on their home turf and earned themselves valuable points for the win in Junior WRC. Sander Pärn (EST) and Pontus Tidemand (SWE) completed the podium in second and third place respectively.
During Fridays first nine stages Amberg moved into a commanding lead. He skilfully completed the remaining four stages on Saturday and finished with a close to two and a half minute lead over his competitors – all driving identically GEM-fuelled Ford Fiesta R2 cars.
Pärn also performed steadily on the final day to ensure second place, ahead of championship leader Tidemand. The championship standings in mind, Tidemand focused on picking up vital points and sealed a clean sweep of fastest times on Saturday’s stages, earning him four key Junior WRC Stage Points and closing the gap with Pärn to under half a minute.
As it stands now, Tidemand has extended his points advantage at the top of the Junior WRC standings over Suárez with rounds in Germany, France and Spain to come. Suárez will be looking to burn this lead once they hit the tarmac before closing the season on the Spanish home stages. Standings in the Junior WRC can be found here.
GEM Fuel proved its worth once again. The drivers continue to be very satisfied with its performance and the green GEM fuel was also getting the thumbs up from the rally fans and the organisers of the Finnish Rally/event. Edward Goossens, fuel supplier GUTTS; “When we set out on this unique project, the scenes we saw this weekend is what we envisioned: demanding gravel stages in beautiful green surroundings, enjoyed by the best young drivers in Rallying – fuelled by the best possible sustainable fuel in rallying: GEM fuel! The Rally of Finland was awesome”!
Special thanks to the GEM Fuel JWRC Partners: Abengoa, BioMCN, Eurol, Methanex and the Methanol Institute for their continuing support for this unique project.
Pictures by RSSP, please visit: JWRC Finland