Max Vatanen on the podium on his home Rally Finland 03.08.2015: Up-and-coming rally star Max Vatanen has continued his perfect run of podium finishes

Up-and-coming rally star Max Vatanen has continued his perfect run of podium finishes on this year’s Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy, finishing third on his home rally: Neste Oil Rally Finland.


Max was consistently among the frontrunners, but is nonetheless disappointed by his result on round three of the championship, marking the halfway point of the season.


With the 24-year-old currently occupying third place in the championship standings, there is still everything to play for.


Max made a reasonably cautious start to the rally, with a faulty front-left wheel bearing preying on his mind during the long opening day of the event, on fast gravel stages. It was a small setback that had big consequences, as there was no service park during Friday: just a remote tyre-fitting zone at Himos.


Without the possibility to fix the problem, Max’s priority was to ensure he got the car to the finish of the day safely so that the M-Sport mechanics could restore his Ford Fiesta R2 to full health.


On the second day though, Max felt he took to long to get onto the pace and he was not able to climb beyond third place – which is where he eventually finished, just two seconds off the runner-up spot. He is also just one point off second place in the championship, which carries a prize drive in a Fiesta R5 on the WRC2 series next year.


“Nearly…that’s how I would describe my rally here really,” said Max, who got the season off to a perfect start by winning the first round in Portugal. “It just took me too long to get on the pace: in some places I was over-driving, and I didn’t find a completely natural feeling until right at the end of the rally, when I set two fastest times. If we had been at that sort of pace from the start, then I think it could have been a different story.”


So rapid was the pace in Finland that it turned out to be the fastest rally in the history of the entire world championship. With massive crests and specific lines, full commitment was needed to get straight onto the pace, especially in the variable weather that characterised this year’s event.


“The problem I felt I was having for a lot of the time was that I wasn’t driving naturally enough,” concluded Max. “It’s important to analyse your driving, but at the same time you can think too much and I believe that this was what I was doing in Finland.


Maybe it was a consequence of Finland being my home rally and me wanting to do as well as possible. We’re still in the fight though and I’ve learned a lot from this weekend, so we’re in a strong position to move forwards on the next round in Germany.”


Rallye Deutschland, the penultimate round of the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy, takes place on asphalt from August 20-23.


- Anthony Peacock - photo Vatanen