Attempting to go one better than
his runner-up result in Finland last year, the 25-year-old Finn started Sunday
in his Ford Fiesta Rally3 with a 49.6sec buffer over Australia’s Taylor Gill,
allowing for a risk-free approach to the rally’s four remaining stages.
The gap to Gill would eventually drop
to 37.2sec whilst Ali Türkkan rounded out the all-Fiesta podium, falling just
2.1sec short of reeling in Gill.
“We started yesterday in fifth,
we had a really good stage time and we managed to climb up quite fast and
managed to get quite a good lead and we needed to be stable and just drive
through the stages with good speed,” commented an ecstatic Kallio. “That was
enough.
“Last year I finished second then
we got the budget together to come here and fight for the win.
“Of course, it is never easy,
there were so many cars this year and that is what attracted us here.”
FIA Rally Star driver Gill experienced
a full rollercoaster of emotions on his Finland debut. As low as eighth after puncturing on Saturday, Gill fought his way back up to second on Saturday’s
final stage, taking a 19.3sec lead over Türkkan who struggled through the
second running of Ouninpohja.
The Turkish driver Türkkan fought
hard through Sunday to get his position back, setting a quickest stage time and
going second-quickest on three others but came up agonisingly short of his
goal.
Tom Rensonnet and Peter Borodin,
also in Fiestas, rounded out the top five.
The WRC3 drivers’ championship
leaderboard remains relatively unchanged following Finland with current leader
Diego Dominguez not opting to score points and Matteo Chatillon, who
occupies second spot, rolling his Renault Clio Rally3 on Saturday morning,
ruling him out of scoring points. Jan Černy, who occupies third spot, did not
compete in Finland.
Japan
Poland
Turkey