Sun 04 Aug 2024

Kallio claims maiden WRC3 victory in Finland

Jesse Kallio has claimed his maiden WRC3 win, triumphing on home soil at Secto Rally Finland on Sunday.

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.

Europe
Starts: Thursday, October 17, 2024 at 7:00:00 AM
Poland
Starts: Friday, October 11, 2024 at 9:30:00 AM
China
Starts: Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 3:00:00 AM