Matti Rantanen (born 13 February 1981) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

rally driver Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...

from

Lammi Lammi ( sv, Lammi, also ) is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated with Hämeenlinna on 2009-01-01. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and is part of the Tavastia Proper region. The municipality had a population ...

Career

Rantanen began rallying in 2003 in his native Finland. In 2004 and 2005 he competed in the Finnish Junior Rally Championship, and the main

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 ...

in 2005 and 2006. In 2005 he competed in his first

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

round on

Rally Finland Rally Finland (formerly known as the Neste Rally Finland, Neste Oil Rally Finland, 1000 Lakes Rally and Rally of the Thousand Lakes; fi, Suomen ralli, sv, Finska rallyt) is a rally competition in the Finnish Lakeland in Central Finland. The ra ...

, winning the Group N category (for less powerful

Group N In relation to international motorsport governed by the FIA, Group N refers to regulations providing 'standard' large scale series production vehicles for competition. They are limited in terms of modifications permitted to the standard specific ...

cars). He repeated this feat in 2006, also winning the Group N class in the Finnish Rally Championship. He moved up to the Group N category in the Finnish championship in 2007, finishing sixth. He finished fourth in the following year, 2008. On the

2008 Rally Finland The 58th Rally Finland, the ninth rally of the 2008 World Rally Championship season took place between July 31 and August 3, 2008. The event was the first rally held after a six-week mid season break. The rally was based in the city of Jyväskylä ...

, Rantanen drove a

Ford Focus WRC The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport ...

to seventh overall. In 2009 Rantanen is competing in the

British Rally Championship The British Rally Championship is a rallying series based in the United Kingdom. The first championship was run in 1958 and it has been licensed by the Motor Sports Association (MSA) since 1999. MSA has opted not to run the series in 2015, in ...

in a front-wheel-drive

Renault Clio The Renault Clio () is a supermini car (B-segment), produced by French automobile manufacturer Renault. It was launched in 1990, and entered its fifth generation in 2019. The Clio has had substantial critical and commercial success, being consis ...

. He competed in the

2009 Rally Finland The 2009 Neste Oil Rally Finland was the 59th running of the Rally Finland and the ninth round of the 2009 World Rally Championship season. The rally consisted of 23 special stages and was won by Ford's Mikko Hirvonen. This marked his third victor ...

for the

Munchi's Ford World Rally Team The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team was a private team competing in the World Rally Championship. The team made its debut in the 2007 Swedish Rally. The cars are prepared and run by the Cumbria based M-Sport operation and Martin Christie is the tea ...

, in which he recorded his highest finish to date after finishing in fifth place overall.

Complete WRC results

JWRC results

SWRC results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rantanen, Matti Finnish rally drivers World Rally Championship drivers Living people 1981 births