Monday Pit-stop #1: The Arctic Rally in Rovaniemi
Just when you thought Christmas was finally over, along comes the Arctic Rally held in Rovaniemi, northern Finland: the home of Joulupukki, more commonly known as Santa Claus.
A few kilometres outside Rovaniemi, close to the Arctic Circle, is the Santa Claus Village – still open every day, with Santa and his elves conducting business as usual.
‘Usual' also means 16-hour nights and temperatures of minus 15 degrees centigrade or so: although it was surprisingly warm this year. In the past, some stages have even been cancelled because it was deemed too dangerous for marshals to be out for long.
And speaking of business as usual, Kalle Rovanpera returned to competitive action for the first time since announcing his partial WRC programme this year. He and Toyota team mate Elfyn Evans were using the snow rally as a warm-up for the second WRC round in Sweden from 15-18 February, and Kalle headed off into an unassailable lead, winning 11 of the 12 stages on the Arctic.
Unfortunately, he was stopped by a technical issue on the final test, leaving the way for Evans to win ahead of Mikko Heikkila in the new Rally 2 Yaris, while last year's winner Teemu Asunmaa in a Skoda was third. In total, 43 of the top 50 drivers were on Pirelli tyres, making the Sottozero the default choice in Finland.
One of the real stars of the show finished 20th: Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala, also returning to competition at the wheel of his historic Toyota Celica ST185. For Latvala, it was only for fun, during a busy weekend for the reigning manufacturer champions, in which they won overall as well as the Rally 2 category (the debut win for the latest version of the Yaris).
“We had a lot going on, but I couldn't miss the Arctic…” said Latvala afterwards. “It's the most fun you can have in a car.”
That's why this unique rally has also attracted Formula 1 stars such as Keke Rosberg and Mika Hakkinen in the past, as well as Valtteri Bottas more recently.
Over in Ireland, four-time British Rally Champion Keith Cronin won the Galway International Rally on a stunning return to the Irish Championship. Cronin, who hadn't competed on any rally since last May, switched to the latest M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally 2 on Pirelli tyres and dominated the event – despite not having contested the Irish series since 2016.
“I certainly didn't expect to win here; it's just fantastic,” said a delighted Cronin at the end of the final stage. “The new Fiesta just clicked: we got the set-up right and the Pirelli tyres worked well – we actually used the same type of tyre all weekend.”
We'll leave you with a video. If the snow and ice action on the Arctic wasn't enough, check out this awesome reel from Ferrari Japan: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2rj1q-MsSK/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==
