By RaceScene Publisher on Sunday, 13 November 2022
Category: The Checkered Flag

All Finnish lockout in WRC as Lindholm claims WRC2 title in Japan

Emil Lindholm has now clinched two world driver titles this season as he secured the WRC2 driver’s world championship title in Rally Japan on Sunday morning. Making it an all-Finnish lockout in the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship after Kalle Rovanperä won in WRC and Lauri Joona in WRC3.

Lindholm managed to secure the WRC2 Junior world title before Spain when the rival Chris Ingram was forced to sit out the rest of the season following the crash in Acropolis Rally Greece. Ahead of Rally Japan, it was a three-way battle for the main title but Andreas Mikkelsen was absent in Japan and Kajetan Kajetanowicz crashed out on Friday. Lindholm only needed to bring the car home in fifth to secure it.

Lindholm lead the rally most of the weekend but got passed by Grégoire Munster on the penultimate stage later he also got passed by Teemu Suninen on the power stage which resulted in Lindholm getting dropped down to third overall in the class and that was enough to win the title by seven points over Mikkelsen.

Munster´s pass on the penultimate stage also resulted in a first win in the WRC2 class for the young Luxembourg native. Ex-Formula 1 legend Heikki Kovalainen claimed fourth on his WRC debut as he passed the 2021 Junior WRC champion Sami Pajari who dropped down to fifth on the power stage.

Official results for WRC2

Pos.NumberDriver / Co-driverNat.TeamCarTime
1.#24Grégoire Munster / Louis LoukaLuxembourg / BelgiumBMAHyundai i20 N Rally22:51:43.1
2.#22Teemu Suninen / Mikko MarkkulaFinlandHyundai Motorsport NHyundai i20 N Rally2+ 21.6
3.#21Emil Lindholm / Reena HämäläinenFinlandToksport WRTSkoda Fabia Rally2 evo+ 34.8
4.#29Heikki Kovalainen / Sae KitagawaFinland / JapanRally Team AicelloSkoda Fabia R5+ 1:09.0
5.#23Sami Pajari / Enni MälkönenFinlandToksport WRTSkoda Fabia Rally2 evo+ 1:10.0
6.#26Sean Johnston / Alexander KihuraniUSASaintéloc Junior TeamCitroen C3 Rally2+ 3:02.7
7.#28Mauro Miele / Luca BeltrameItalyToksport WRT 2Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo+ 4:42.7
8.#30Osamu Fukunaga / Misako SaidaJapanThree Five MotorsportSkoda Fabia R5+ 10:12.4
9.#35Eamonn Boland / Micahel Joseph MorrisseyIrelandEamonn BolandFord Fiesta Rally2+ 10:51.2
10.#32Luke Anear / Stuart LoudonAustralia / UKM-Sport Ford WRTFord Fiesta Rally2+ 13:36.3
11.#25Bruno Bulacia / Gabriel MoralesBolivia / BrazilToksport WRT 2Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo+ 14:15.1
12.#37Satoshi Imai / Shizuka TakeharaJapanAKM Motor SportCitroen C3 Rally2+ 23:39.5
13.#36Frédéric Rosati / Patrick ChiappeFranceBMAHyundai i20 N Rally2+ 28:00.0
14.#27Fabrizio Zaldivar / Marcelo Der OhannesianParaguay / ItalyHyundai Motorsport NHyundai i20 N Rally2+ 53:01.4
15.#34Jean-Michel Raoux / Laurent MagatFranceJean-Michel RaouxVolkswagen Polo GTi R5+ 1:03:51.6
16.#20Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Maciej SzczepaniakPolandRace SevenSkoda Fabia Rally2 evoRETIRED
17.#31Tosihiro Arai / Naoya TanakaJapanStohl RacingCitroen C3 Rally2RETIRED
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