The young flying Finn Lauri Joona was on top over the weekend in RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada as he clinched the 2022 WRC3 driver’s championship and became the fifth Finn this season to take a title after Kalle Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen won the FIA World Rally Championship title for driver and co-driver in New Zealand. Emil Lindholm took the WRC2 Junior title most recently and Enni Mälkönen became the first female in three decades to take a co-driver title in WRC3, however, she´s the co-driver for Sami Pajari.
But the WRC3 title fight was quite a challenge for Joona as the other title contender Czech´s Jan Cerny started the Spanish rally in the lead and had a 2.5 seconds advantage heading to Sunday but later he went down to the second place and was constantly putting Joona under pressure after the Finn passed him. Joona managed to win the rally and the title by just 9 seconds dead.
“It was a big relief we didn’t have to drive that stage, I think we would have had to go through in three wheel drive and we would have lost 20sec. Of course our main target was Junior WRC but when we realised we had a possibility to be world champion in this series, we put our focus here. It was a risk coming to Spain where I do not have too much experience on Tarmac, but it has worked.” Joona said.
Official 2022 WRC3 Driver´s Championship standings
| Pos. | Driver | Nat. | Team | Car | Total |
| 1. | Lauri Joona | Finland | Printsport | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 111 |
| 2. | Jan Cerny | Czech Republic | All Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 104 |
| 3. | Sami Pajari | Finland | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 87 |
| 4. | Zoltan Laszlo | Hungary | Topp-Cars Rally Team | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 73 |
| 5. | William Creighton | Ireland | Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 63 |
| 6. | McRae Kimathi | Kenya | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 57 |
| 7. | Enrico Brazzoli | Italy | G.B. Motors Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 48 |
| 8. | Diego Dominguez Jr. | Paraguay | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 40 |
| 9. | Maxine Wahome | Kenya | Safaricom PLC | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 25 |
| 10. | Jeremy Wahome | Kenya | Safaricom PLC | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 18 |
| 11. | Ivica Siladic | Croatia | IK Sport | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 15 |
| 12. | Henri Timonen | Finland | Dogbox Oy | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 15 |
| 13. | Epaminodas Karanikolas | Greece | M-Sport Poland | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 15 |
| 14. | Toni Herranen | Finland | KMS Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 12 |
| 15. | Panos Ismailos | Greece | Topp-Cars Rally Team | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 12 |
| 16. | Roope Korhonen | Finland | Ralrent Oy | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 10 |
| 17, | Hamza Anwar | Kenya | Safaricom PLC | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 0 |
| 18. | Tommi Heino | Finland | KMS Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 0 |
