Salo wins Arctic Rally Lapland, Mikkelsen 2nd

Juha Salo, driving an R4 classified Mitsubishi Lancer has won Arctic Rally Lapland – the first event of the Finnish Rally Championship series in 2013. Juha was heavily challenged by visiting star Andreas Mikkelsen of Norway who was also signed for the VW WRC Team for this season. The fact that Mikkelsen was driving an S2000 classified Skoda Fabia with significant power advantage compared to Salo's Mitsubishi, shows how much Salo has improved his driving.

Juha Salo takes the lead in Arctic Lapland Rally

On the second stage of Arctic Lapland Rally (the first event of the Finnish National Rally Championship series), visiting star Andreas Mikkelsen took charge of the rally by winning the rest of yesterday's stages. According to FRC Online Results site, Juha Salo is back in the lead after the first stage of today. Mikkelsen has had some action on the stage resulting in a loss of nearly 5 minutes in time to Salo who was fastest. Joni Nikko is currently on the 2nd and Ari Vihavainen on the 3rd place.

Ketomaa and Delecour to start in Latvia's FIAERC event

Rally Liepāja-Ventspils is scheduled to start on the first of February in Latvia. This event is part of the FIA European Rally Championship Round. Jari Ketomaa will participate in the rally behind the wheel of a Ford Fiesta Regional Rally Car. Rally veteran Francois Delecour will also be among the potential champions, driving a Peugeot 207 S2000.
 

Chardonnet flying in Monte

Sebastien Chardonnet of France, driving a Citroen DS3 in WRC 3 class, did an excellent job in Rally Monte Carlo by being fastest after the WRC cars and beating all WRC 2 drivers on SS12 (ST NAZAIRE LE DESERT - LA MOTT).

The 2nd day of Monte completed

The 2nd day of Rally Monte Carlo has been completed and Sebastien Loeb continues in the lead showing the fastest pace overall today. The real highlights of the day were Evgeni Novikov's 2 stage wins and Juho Hänninen's first ever stage win on SS9. Currently on 4th place, Novikov is expected to continue his rise towards the podium while Juho is still learning the new car and will most likely take it more carefully tomorrow.

Lappi retires from Monte due to puncture on stage 1

Esapekka Lappi was unfortunate today on Monte Carlo Rally's first stage and hit a rock which resulted in swingarm failure. Driving the rest 20kms of the stage with an injured car he was still fastest in his class, but the failure forced him to finish the rally on the 2nd stage.

Finnish drivers rated Hirvonen and Ogier as the most potential champions

Four Finnish rally stars who will be participating in WRC and WRC2 series during the upcoming season (Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho Hänninen, Esapekka Lappi and Jarkko Nikara) were asked who in their opinion will take the WRC championship this year. Votes go even between Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Ogier. Three potential rivals in the battle for WRC championship were named – Mads Ostberg, Dani Sordo and Juho Hänninen. Read the article by Ilta-Sanomat (in Finnish only).

The new season in WRC launches today

The 2013 season in WRC starts today with Rally Monte Carlo shake down. It's time for speculations about podium candidates. The startlist for this year's Monte seems wonderful with about ten WRC drivers who have got the potential for podium finish. In addition to self-evident candidates Loeb and Hirvonen, the rest of the list is interesting.

Here's my hot picks for potential challengers this year (in no specific order):

Mads Ostberg - This young Norwegian showed extreme potential last season and is boosting with confidence to show that he has earned his seat in WRC. If he can keep his head calm, he will be high in the results.

Juho Hänninen - Juho has got everything to make it to the top of WRC this year. Compared to other runners up, he has got a lot of experience from Monte and similar conditions when rallying in S2000 over the recent years. The only potential barrier on his way to success is the new car and tires which he may not be very used to yet.

Dani Sordo - Returning to Citroen, Dani is very experienced and has shown last season that he still has got the potential to take the last and most important step towards WRC championship. No real weaknesses when Monte is considered.

Sebastien Ogier - During his last season, before retiring from WRC to the VW WRC development programme, "Seb the 2nd" was constantly challenging his team mate Loeb. He made a few appearances with S2000 Skoda last season and proved he's still got it. Ogier is my vote of the two VW drivers who are both fast but the big question mark is whether the new Polo is yet competitive and most importantly, reliable enough to make it through the long and very demanding event.

Ketomaa confirmed for Latvia ERC event in February

The brand new FIA ERC web portal reports about Jari Ketomaa's decision to participate in the Latvian event of ERC series in February. Jari will pilot an Autotek Motorsport tuned Fiesta with DMACK tires.

5 Finnish drivers signed for WRC in 2013

Finnish media reported today about Jarkko Nikara's and Jari Ketomaa's participation in the WRC series during the upcoming season. These young talents will both compete in Rally Sweden - Jarkko driving a Prodrive Mini and Jari an Autotek Fiesta WRC (sponsored by DMACK). There's no confirmation about other events yet, but since both drivers have been showing extremely promising performances in their earlier WRC entries, the hopes are high. It seems that season 2013 in WRC will turn exceptional in many ways - particularly from the Finnish perspective with now 5 participants confirmed to compete in the series.