A total of 68 crews have registered for the high-speed 2023 edition of Secto Rally Finland that will be held in Jyväskylä on 3-6 August 2023 as part of the FIA World Rally Championship, the Finnish Grand Prix as it is nicknamed has a significantly more entries this year than in the previous two years, in the last season only 44 crews were participating and in 2021 one fewer.
In the hybrid Rally1 class, there are nine cars entered, of which four are locals. For the current manufacturer points leader Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT it is last year’s champion Kalle Rovanperä who is headlining the list, joining together with Rovanperä will be Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta. Running in a fourth Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 will be the current team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, who made a surprise announcement just some days ago that he will be stepping down from the leading role through the rally to have a go in the new class, first comeback to WRC after the 2020 Rally Sweden. Toyota’s chairman Akio Toyoda will step in as the team principal.
Teemu Suninen will be joining Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT in the third Hyundai i20 N Rally1, the Finn announced previously he will take control of the car for Rally Estonia and Rally Finland. Thierry Neuville who was disqualified from Safari Rally Kenya last time out will be the leading driver from Hyundai and rounding up the Finns entered for the event is Esapekka Lappi in the second Hyundai. For M-Sport Ford WRT it will be the 2019 world champion Ott Tänak who is the leading Ford Puma Rally1 driver and will be joined by Pierre-Louis Loubet in the second Ford.
Over in the WRC2 support class, there are several big names entered. Toksport WRT will be fielding a total of seven of the new Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 car. Joining the team for Finland will be Oliver Solberg, Andreas Mikkelsen, Gus Greensmith, Sami Pajari, Nikolay Gryazin, and the two brothers Bruno Bulacia and Marco Bulacia.
M-Sport will field two Ford Fiesta Rally2 machines for Adrien Fourmaux and Gregorie Munster as well as giving support for the reigning Junior WRC champion Robert Virves in a similar car. For Hyundai Motorsport in a pair of Hyundai i20 N Rally2s, the reigning WRC2 champion Emil Lindholm will take over the seat of Suninen and he will be teamed up by Fabrizio Zaldivar.
Other great names to keep a watchful eye on are the current points leader Yohan Rossel who joins in the sole PH Sport backed Citroen C3 Rally2 entry, the two locals of Mikko Heikkilä and Jari Huttunen in a pair of new Skodas fielded by TGS Worldwide and reigning WRC3 champion Lauri Joona is in an older Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo.
The WRC3 sees a bumper entry of 14 crews entered where the major are locals. Headlining the entries are the Finns of Roope Korhonen, Toni Herrnanen, and Jesse Kallio. All 14 crews are entered in Ford Fiesta Rally3 machines.
But there’s more good news, the new Renault Clio Rally3 which will become the next WRC3 challenger will make its competitive world debut in Rally Finland with Markus Manninen behind the wheel.
