Route Preview: Rally Finland 2023

Rally Finland’s route has half new from last year. At the same time, now half of the route is fast and wide as opposed to a third like on previous editions. The return of Myhinpää is a big thing alone, but there’s two other stages dusted off from the archives. On the contrary, after four years of serving as the power stage, Ruuhimäki is now completely absent from the itinerary, but it also means a new power stage. This route is very fast and could be fastest WRC event ever!

Cover image by Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool (C)
maps @ rally-maps.com

Thursday

Thursday has remained completely unchanged from last year. The Rannankylä shakedown is a straightforward blast on a medium wide but firm road. There’s basically only three tighter corners on the stage – the last one being a junction – and only one bigger jump.

However, this stage is now better suited to the relatively fast route of this year. Last year the average speed was up to 138.9 km/h, the highest clocking of the weekend, but not sure if it will be the fastest one this year!

SSS1 Harju opens the actual rally in the same updated format as last year, with two laps.

It’s a classic street stage where the opening acceleration into hairpin on tarmac has remained the same on all versions. Half of the stage is tackled on narrow gravel park paths, and there’s also the element of elevation by climbing up to the hill of Harju.

Friday

Friday is now driven all East of Jyväskylä. There’s two new stages, but changes on the two other stages mean that there’s only 6.4 km of pace notes from last year to be reused. The day is very short, with only 106 competitive kilometres.

SS2+6 Laukaa opens the day like last year, but now with a new section in the beginning. In this format the stage is more versatile and interesting. Oliver Solberg’s crash corner from last year is not included now.

The beginning can be seen on this video from 0:24 where the start is now, to 2:58 where the stage will now turn left. It’s a medium wide road, first quite fast with a few tight corners and crests too small to lift the car properly, and then more technical and sinuous.

Last year’s route is then joined at 5.3 km, where the road becomes wider and faster. The fast section crosses a tarmac road and becomes more technical with a string of square bends. Finally a triangle junction chicane takes the stage onto the last fast blast, which is now extended 250 m further than before, adding another flat corner over crest.

SS3+7 Lankamaa retains also its place as the second forest stage, but now reversed back to its usual direction and cut in half, leaving the technical small road out, making it now likely the fastest stage of the rally with average speed likely close to 140 km/h! In this form the stage was last driven back in 1993.

The stage starts now from a narrow road amid fields. It’s completely flat out until it goes through a farm. This is where Colin McRae crashed back in 1998.

Next up the more familiar Lankamaa starts – a medium wide and fast road which becomes occasionally narrow and/or technical. Mostly there are no ditches, with rocks and trees close to the road.

The esker part begins at 7.7 km with a wider but sandy slippery road. It’s super fast but the banks on the sides and trees close to the road make it challenging. This section also contains Colin McRae’s infamous crash location from 1992.

The final part is again similar to the previous one, but now maybe a bit more on the technical and narrow side. The last junction is now a slight right instead of a tight left.

SS4+8 Myhinpää is another fast stage but completely different to Lankamaa, with a wide and firm road with numerous jumps – while the three other stages of the day don’t have any!. This stage hasn’t been run since 2015 and back then in the opposite direction, which in turn was used in 2014 but with a small road loop, which is now absent. Instead the pace is jarred with two junction chicanes. Myhinpää is also the longest stage of the day, although only 15.5 km long.

The start is very wide and fast-flowing with jumps and corners over crests. Two chicanes feature on this section, at 3.5 km and 6.9 km, and due to them the average speed won’t be as high as on Lankamaa.

At 7.3 km the road becomes narrower and more angular with more tight corners and straighter flat out sections with less jumps. But it’s still very spectacular and extremely challenging.

The last forest stage of the day is SS5+9 Halttula, which has been used in the rally only from 1989 to 1995. The format this year is almost equal to 1989-1993, just a bit extended from the beginning. Still, it’s the shortest forest stage of the rally with just over 9 km of length.

Most of Halttula is on quite firm and fast roads, with a bit of wider road linking them in the middle and another bit at the very start of the stage. Most of the route is very atypical to the rally: flat and angular. There’s absolutely no jumps, hardly even crests. Almost all corners are connected via long straights instead of challenging S-bends, instead there are numerous long square bends. The most challenging spots of the stage are the junctions at the start and in the middle, and the last pair of square bends just before the finish.

The day is rounded with SSS10 Harju, which is the exact same version as on Thursday – now there is no single lap version like last year.

Saturday

Saturday takes the crews South-East as usual. The day contains almost half of the whole rally stage mileage, a gruelling 160 km, the longest Saturday since 2010! As a relief, three of the four stages are identical from last year.

SS11+15 Västilä opens the day and is the only stage of the day not run last year. In fact it’s completely new for the current drivers, having not been run since 2001, and not in this direction since 1994. It will be one of the fastest stages of the rally and for sure the fastest one of Saturday. You can see the stage here until 6:46

The first 11.7 km are classic Tampere area 1000 Lakes: firm, wide, well cambered, loaded with crests and corners, but only sparse jumps. Then there is a chicane going around a barn, leading into a hyper fast section with a tarmac bend at 13 km.

Finally a challenging junction at 14.3 km (video above) leads onto a narrower but still very fast road with a handful of square bends. Especially the last 2.8 km are just completely flat out. The finish line is now a bit further than in the 90’s, adding a nice jump at the finish line.

SS12+16 Päijälä has become a staple of the modern Rally Finland era, a favourite for all of spectators, drivers and organizers. This and the two following stages are run exactly like last year.

The beginning is on a quite wide road. It’s a combination of fast, technical and jumps with some surprising rhythm changes and sections without ditches. Subsequentially a wider road with cambered and long tight bends appears at 8.7 km, actually slowing down the pace for a while.

Next up the classic Päijälä road is joined via a paved bridge. In the 80’s Päijälä consisted solely of this road, but in the opposite direction. It’s another classic 1000 Lakes rollercoaster – wide, firm, fast and loaded with jumps – one of the best roads of the rally for sure.

At 17.3 km – after a series of jumps – the stage turns onto a loop of small and soft forest roads (on the video above). It’s a challenging section, as we can see from the video below.

Finally the stage returns onto the Päijälä road for a short section through a farm, where Juho Hänninen crashed back in 2014.

SS13+17 Rapsula represents the Ouninpohja area. The route consists of several roads and has many junction turns.

The start is from the Rapsula road where Markku Alen rolled the Group B Lancia back in 1986. It’s quite narrow but firm and semi-technical.

The Ouninpohja route is joined at 2.8 km. First it’s super fast and wide until the iconic Kakaristo junction. The next road is narrower and easier, but the Ouninpohja small road at 6.8 km turns up the challenge. It’s technical and rough but fast at the same time, with many jumps.

The last 6 km of the stage are angular with a string of straightforward and very fast roads connected together via junctions, first of them on tarmac. The roads also get narrower one by one.

SS14+18 Vekkula was a new stage last year and has carried over. It contains many road types from small to wide and slow to fast. Last year it was the slowest forest stage of the rally with 121 km/h of average speed. Amazingly enough, it’s the longest stage of the rally at 20.65 km, although all the four stages of the day are almost equally long. Still, it’s the first time WRC Rally Finland has no stage longer than 21 km.

Vekkula starts partly with the same section that was used on the Leustu stage back in 2019, consisting of many small roads, and up to six junction turns within the first 2.4 km. However, the following 4.6 km are completely flat out apart from one junction turn. Next up is a small and soft but quite fast road, before the smallest and roughest road of the whole rally at the midpoint of the stage.

The more flowing roads of Ehikki are then joined at 12.2 km. It’s similar to Västilä with many corners over crests but not that many jumps, although one is pictured on the following video.

The section and stage concludes with a string of tight bends. The Ehikki road also feels narrower than in the 90’s due to wild vegetation in the ditches growing close to the road.

Sunday

Sunday looks now quite different to previous years, being driven in the South-West of Jyväskylä. There’s 53 km of stages, which is the longest Sunday the rally has had since 2006!

SS19+21 Moksi – Sahloinen is a reversed version of last year’s stage. In this direction, the first half was run as the ending of Moksi and Surkee from 2012 to 2019, but the next three sections never before.

The ending is tweaked a bit to suit going Southwards so actually the stage ends with the same pieces of road it started with last year – in the same direction! Last year Sahloinen – Moksi was the fastest stage of the rally with 132 km/h of average speed on the second pass, despite numerous junctions and some small road sections, just emphasizing how super fast the wide sections are on this stage.

So, essentially the stage consists of three sections of wide and super fast road, punctuated by three short small road sections. The wide roads are fast-flowing with hardly any jumps, but some nice corners.

The first small road part is a loop which occurs at 4.4 km via the junction where Sebastien Ogier went into the ditch in 2016. The three first roads in this loop are quite narrow and technical, the fourth one wider with even a jump.

The next small road at 11.8 km is also narrow and soft but more fast-flowing, passing a farm. The final small road section at the end of the stage is a bit wider and firmer, first technical and then straightforward. The finish line is just before the corner where Kalle Rovanperä went a bit wide last year.

SS20+22 Himos – Jämsä concludes the rally. It is definitely the slowest and most technical forest stage of the rally, maybe not the most obvious choice for a power stage in this fast route. Compared to last year it has a few hundred meters in common with the Patajoki stage.

Meanwhile the beginning is completely new, and the rest of the roads have been last driven in 2010 or 2015.

The completely new beginning is made up of three small roads, with the third one being most narrow, soft and technical. It also contains a houseyard with a corner over a blind crest. Subsequently we join the Patajoki route for a short straight and then turn tightly left instead of right like last year. In this junction Harri Rovanperä went into the fields in 1998.

Next up is 1.5 km super fast passage on a wide road before turning towards the Himos skiing center. This road is narrow and technical but fast and is where Andreas Mikkelsen crashed back in 2015.

Then the next hairpin onto a wider road has been paved since the last time. This road climbs steeply but has some nice corners

At the top of the hill the stage switches onto a narrow and very rough service road, descending steeply along the skiing slope. This is a very challenging and spectacular section, albeit more suitable to Sardegna than 1000 Lakes Rally!

The stage concludes onto the parking area of Himos, through a skiing tunnel (like 2013-2015) and two square turns before the finish line (differently than in 2013-2015).

The final podium ceremony is now also in Himos instead of Paviljonki, due to construction works in the latter.