Keeping the Lead After Snowy Finland
Second event of the WRC Calendar was Arctic Rally Finland after Rally Sweden was canceled due to Covid-19. This time, for a one-off appearance in Arctic Rally Finland, Eyvind Brynildsen pairing up with Veronica Engan in place of Marco Bulacia-Wilkinson & Marcelo Der Ohannesian. The crew had unfortunate visa issues and can’t make it in time to Lapland but will return to their seats for the next round. Also we had new guests in WRC3 category. Fabrizio Zaldivar and Carlos del Barrio duo made their debut in WRC3 on infamous snowy conditions of Arctic Rally Finland.
Mikkelsen and Floene were cautious throughout the rally. They had consistent pace, balancing between saving studded tires and getting close to the limit. They started the rally in third place but quickly after the third stage, they became second. Without taking any risks and having major incidents, our duo managed to finish the rally second place in WRC2 and still keeping lead in the category.
With the help of our one-off contenders Brynildsen and Engan, we are also sharing the lead in Teams. Also without any major issues, they kept 4th place in WRC2 to their own almost the whole time and finished the rally in 4th place. Brynildsen comments were; “This is the best thing you can do even without the clothes on. It’s so good fun. So good fun.’’
Fabrizio Zaldivar showed his raw pace even while being a debutant in a snow/ice rally. Overall strong performance but unlucky in the end. He was 6th in WRC 3 but after his incident in the end of the second day with only two stages to go, he had to retire and continue with Super Rally.
