M-Sport Ford driver Teemu Suninen says it’s “really nice” to get his first FIA World Rally Championship podium on last weekend’s Rally Italia Sardegna.
Suninen ended the event in second after a fine drive throughout the weekend and he claimed his highest finish in the championship so far in his career.
Speaking after the end of the event on Sunday afternoon, Suninen said: “I am really pleased with our performance this weekend. We had good speed with some fastest times on Friday, and then we were extremely consistent after that – especially on Saturday where we set the second or third fastest time on every stage.”
“Today (Sunday) was a lot more difficult. The plan was to bring the car home, but this car really doesn’t like being driven slowly and we had to pick up the pace to make it nicer to drive. It was really hard to judge the rhythm, but we made it and it’s nice to get my first podium of the year.”
On the Italian event, he also had a new co-driver as Jarmo Lehtinen entered his first event alongside the 25-year-old and Suninen added: “Also the partnership with Jarmo was working really well. I thought it would be a lot more challenging having a new voice in my ear, but actually this is the voice I heard whilst watching the rally on the TV as a kid – and that gave me some good memories and big smiles all weekend.”
The next round of the 2019 FIA World Rally Championship is Rally Finland, which takes place at the beginning of August.
