Lauka’s Roope Korhonen gassed to victory in the championship rally of Lahti and its surrounding areas.
The 6th race of the Rally SM series, Lahti. TV2 Sun 25.8. at 7:45 p.m
Friday and Saturday 23.-24. the victory of the penultimate race of the SM rally series held in August was taken by the driver of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car Roope Korhonen.
Korhonen beat the runner-up Teemu Asunmaan with 14.1 seconds.
– Quite a successful day. Yesterday we got stuck a bit when the tire choice was not the best possible. Today, fortunately, everything pretty much went smoothly, Teemu was not given a single stitch. This is how it had to go in terms of the championship fight, Korhonen expressed the mood at the finish of the last special stage of the race.
The victory was important for Korhonen in the class championship battle. The gap to Asunmaa has now increased to 20 points and everything is practically in their own hands in the final race of Kitee, where there is a 1.5 times points pot.
Behind the top two drove in third place Benjamin Korholawho, however, had almost a minute left to beat Korhose. Korhola also continues in third place in the series.
In the SM2 category, the brightest medal was already awarded in the previous race To Henri Hokkalaand the man was not seen on the line in Lahti. Hokkala’s absence opened the game comfortably, as the battle for victory was fought by two class debutants, Ville Vatanen and Henri Altomaan between. Vatanen finally celebrated the victory with a 12-second run.
Unofficial results from the Lahti SM rally:
SM1 1. Roope Korhonen 49:40.7
2. Teemu Asunmaa +14.1
3. Benjamin Korhola +57.6
4. Tommi Jylhä +2:18.8
5. Jooa Iivari +2:51.7
SM2 1. Ville Vatanen 53:07.3
2. Henri Altomaa +12.6
3. Henri Timonen +1:51.8
4. Joni Kuusela +2:17.0
5. Jarmo Honkanen +7:37.8
SM3
1. Tuukka Kauppinen 54:09.7
2. Leevi Lassila +10.7
3. Thomas Martens +27.3
4. Joni Korhonen +35.5
5. Takumi Matsushita +1:11.1