The 2021 Arctic Rally Finland (also known as the Arctic Rally Finland Powered by CapitalBox 2021) was a

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

event for rally cars that was held over three days between 26 and 28 February 2021. It marked the fifty-seventh running of the

Arctic Rally Arctic Rally, currently Arctic Lapland Rally and also known as Tunturiralli, is an annual rally competition held on ice- and snow-covered roads in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland. It has been organized continuously since 1966. In 2021, a separate ev ...

, and the first time the event has been run as a round of the World Rally Championship. The event was the second round of the

2021 World Rally Championship The 2021 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-ninth season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing competition recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. T ...

World Rally Championship-2 The FIA WRC2 (previously also known as World Rally Championship 2 and WRC 2), is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the main class and crews usually compete immediately ...

and World Rally Championship-3. The 2021 event was based in

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Per� ...

Lapland Lapland may refer to: Places *Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) **Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region *** Lapland (former pr ...

and was contested over ten special stages totalling in competitive distance. Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were the defending rally winners, having won the 2020 rally when it was held as part of the

Finnish Rally Championship The Finnish Rally Championship is the national rally championship in Finland. The series currently has four classes; Super4 (including R5, S2000 and old WRC cars), Production4 (including Group N cars), R2 (including R2 and R1 cars) and Super2 (in ...

. Ott Tänak and

Martin Järveoja Martin Järveoja (; born 18 August 1987) is an Estonian rally co-driver. He is currently teamed with Ott Tänak and is competing for Hyundai in the World Rally Championship. Rally career He is the son of Estonian politician Toomas Järveoja, an ...

won the event. Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm won the World Rally Championship-2 category, while

Teemu Asunmaa Teemu is a Finnish male given name. Notable people with the name include: *Teemu Aalto (born 1978), Finnish professional ice hockey player *Teemu Eronen (born 1990), professional ice hockey defenceman *Teemu Hartikainen (born 1990), Finnish profes ...

and

Marko Salminen Marko Salminen (born 10 October 1978) is a Finnish rally co-driver. He is currently competing in the Junior World Rally Championship as the co-driver of Sami Pajari and in the Finnish Rally Championship alongside Teemu Asunmaa. Rally career Ma ...

were the winners in the World Rally Championship-3.

Background

Addition on the calendar

The Arctic Rally was not included on the first calendar published by the

World Motorsport Council The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) is a major organ within the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's governance structure. Its primary role is amending current regulations and drafting new regulations for all of international motor spor ...

. The event was a late addition when

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, ...

was cancelled in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The Arctic Rally was chosen over six other reserve events because Rally Sweden was the only snow-based event on the calendar, and none of the reserve events were planned to run on snow. Competitors are required to wear warmer overalls than usual for safety reasons. The Arctic Rally was run twice in 2021. The first running in January was held as a round of the Finnish national rally Championship, while the second running in February was a World Championship round. The national-level event was won by Juho Hänninen, driving a Toyota Yaris WRC. The two events have the same organisers and similar routes.

Championship standings prior to the event

Reigning World Champions

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champions ...

and Julien Ingrassia entered the round with a nine-point lead over Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin. Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were third, a further four points behind. In the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT held a twenty-two-point lead over defending manufacturers' champions Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, followed by

M-Sport Ford WRT The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly M-Sport World Rally Team, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team) is the privately run World Rally Championship team of M-Sport, the firm run by Malcolm Wilson that was previ ...

. In the World Rally Championship-2 standings, Andreas Mikkelsen and

Ola Fløene Ola Fløene (born February 1, 1969) is a Norwegian rally co-driver in the World Rally Championship. He is currently contesting WRC2 alongside long-time colleague Andreas Mikkelsen with Toksport WRT. In the past Ola has co-driven with a number o ...

held an eight-point lead ahead of Adrien Fourmaux and

Renaud Jamoul Renaud Jamoul (born 10 June 1984) is a Belgian rallying co-driver. He partnered with Adrien Fourmaux for M-Sport Ford World Rally Team in the World Rally Championship and World Rally Championship-2 categories in 2019-2021. Mid 2021, he was repla ...

in the drivers' and co-drivers' standings respectively, with

Eric Camilli Eric Camilli (born 6 September 1987) is a French rally driver. He has competed in the World Rally Championship since 2014. After starting out in the lower levels, he made his debut in the top level in 2016 while driving for M-Sport in a Ford Fi ...

and

François-Xavier Buresi François-Xavier is a French masculine given name. Notable people with the name include: * François-Xavier Archambault (1841–1893), a lawyer and political figure in Quebec * François-Xavier Audouin (1765–1837), a French clergyman and politi ...

in third. In the teams' championship,

Toksport WRT Toksport World Rally Team is a motorsport preparation and race team based at the Nürburgring in Quiddelbach, Germany. The team has prepared cars for, and entered events in 26 motorsports championship around the globe and has won notable FIA ch ...

led

Movisport Movisport is a rally team and marketing agency based in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The rally team, ''Scuderia Campione Movisport'' competes in the Italian national championship, the European Rally Championship and the World Rally Championship (WRC), an ...

by ten points. In the World Rally Championship-3 standings, Yohan Rossel and

Benoît Fulcrand Benoît () is a French male given name. It is less frequently spelled Benoist. The name comes from the Latin word , which means "the one who says the good", equivalent in meaning to Bénédicte or the English name Benedict. A female derivative ...

led the drivers' and co-drivers' standings by six points respectively. Yoann Bonato and

Benjamin Boulloud Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

were second, with

Nicolas Ciamin Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

and

Yannick Roche Yannick is a first name that originated in Brittany, France, where the combination of its two Breton language parts, ''Yann (disambiguation), Yann'' and ''-ick'', results in the meaning of ''Little John'' or ''Petit Jean'' in French language, Frenc ...

in third in both standings, trailing by two points.

Entry list

The following crews were entered into the rally. The event was open to crews competing in the World Rally Championship, its support categories, the World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3, and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

entries that were not registered to score points in any championship. Thirteen entries for the World Rally Championship were received, as were ten in the World Rally Championship-2 and twenty-three in the World Rally Championship-3.

In detail

Oliver Solberg Oliver Solberg (born 23 September 2001) is a Sweden, Swedish-Norway, Norwegian rally (sports), rally driver. He is the son of the 2003 World Rally Championship, 2003 List of World Rally Championship Drivers' champions, World Rally Champion, Pett ...

is set to make his

Rally1 Within the motorsport discipline of rallying, Group Rally1 is a formula of rally car specifications for use at the highest level of international rallying in the World Rally Championship (WRC) as determined by the FIA. Despite the use of the wo ...

début in a Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC prepared and entered by Hyundai's satellite team Hyundai 2C Competition at the rally. His co-driver for this rally is Sebastian Marshall as his regular co-driver

Aaron Johnston Aaron Johnston is an American author, comics writer, and film producer. Johnston was an associate producer on the movie ''Ender's Game'', including a cameo appearance as an International Fleet officer. He co-authored with Orson Scott Card the Fi ...

has to miss the rally after he was found positive with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. FIA World Rallycross Championship driver Mattias Ekström will make a one-off appearance in the rally.

Route

The rally will be contested over ten special stages totalling in competitive distance. The route of the rally is different to that of the first running of the event in January 2021. All of the stages will be run in reverse, with the exception of the Aittajärvi Power Stage. The Mustalampi stage returned to the itinerary from previous runnings of the Arctic Rally, with some sections being brand-new.

Itinerary

All dates and times are EET (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

Report

World Rally Cars

Ott Tänak and

won the event for Hyundai. Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finished second for Toyota and took the lead in the championship. Ogier crashed on Saturday but was allowed to restart the next day. Solberg lost fifteen seconds to an off on the power stage, on which Rovanperä set the fastest time to claim the maximum bonus points, 0.2 seconds faster than Craig Breen and

Paul Nagle Paul Nagle (born 29 August 1978) is an Irish rally co-driver. Drivers with whom he has teamed include Kris Meeke, Gareth MacHale and Craig Breen.

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-2

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

World Rally Championship-3

Classification

Special stages

Championship standings

Notes

References

External links

*
2021 Arctic Rally Finland
at

eWRC-results.com eWRC-results.com is a Czech online database website founded in 2006. The website features data and statistics in the motorsport of rallying that ranges from World Rally Championship to national rally events dating back to 1911. Shutdown In ea ...

* Th
official website
of the World Rally Championship {{DEFAULTSORT:Arctic Rally Finland, 2021 2021 in Finnish sport 2021 World Rally Championship season February 2021 sports events in Europe Arctic challenges