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Joona wins WRC3 in Finland with a comfortable lead
The local hero Lauri Joona won the WRC3 single-make class during the Secto Rally Finland over the weekend and ending the last stage with a 4 minutes and 23.8 seconds lead over the rivals and also did a nearly clean-sweep across the four days by winning almost all except one of the stages.
The FIA Junior WRC regular however did not have the perfect weekend, he faced some power steering issues in his M-Sport Poland built all-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta Rally3 car but despite that he managed to take all stage wins. Before the final day of the rally he had a lead of 3 minutes and 34.7 seconds over the Rally Estonia winner Jan Cerny.
The class win is seeing him moving closer to his fellow countryman and championship rival Sami Pajari, who swithced class for the weekend as he was entered in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo fielded by Toksport WRT in the WRC2 class. Joona is now only one point short of snatching the championship lead.
Credit: @World / Red Bull Content Pool
Cerny finished the rally in second place meanwhile class debutant Henri Timonen ended up further 17 minutes behind in third place, the FIA European Rally Championship regular Toni Herranen completes the leaderboard in fourth and Tommi Heino had to retire on Friday after he went off the road.
Official rally results for WRC3:
| Pos. | Number | Driver / Co-driver | Country | Team | Model |
| 1. | #38 | Lauri Joona / Tuukka Shemeikka | Finland | Printsport | Ford Fiesta Rally3 |
| 2. | #39 | Jan Cerny / Jan Tomanek | Czech Republic | All Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 |
| 3. | #43 | Henri Timonen / Jossi Kärpijoki | Finland | Dogbox Oy | Ford Fiesta Rally3 |
| 4. | #40 | Toni Herranen / Sebastian Virtanen | Finland | Printsport | Ford Fiesta Rally3 |
| RET. | #41 | Tommi Heino / Patric Öhman | Finland | KMS Racing | Ford Fiesta Rally3 |
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