This month in history 2016: Rally Finland

The shared history of Citroën Racing and TotalEnergies is full of great exploits and especially world rally championship wins, but the month of August is the perfect occasion to look back on the most recent win claimed by this prolific pairing at the iconic Rally Finland. It was back in 2016 that Northern Irishman Kris Meeke, alongside Irish co-driver Paul Nagle – contesting the world rally championship on a part-time basis in the DS3 WRC whilst the C3 WRC was being developed (it would make its WRC début a year later, in 2017) – produced a genuinely dominant performance on the ultra-fast stages around Jyvaskyla. Kris grabbed the lead on stage two and went on to win the rally comfortably, finishing almost thirty second ahead of local specialist Jari-Matti Latvala and the late Craig Breen, also competing in a DS3 WRC, who completed the superb team performance of the French team with a podium finish. Kris Meeke, a winner early in the year at Rally Portugal, thus claimed his third WRC career win – he now has five in total – and became the first British driver to win in Finland, and only the sixth non-Nordic driver to achieve the feat. 

“It's a little bit crazy to be honest,” said Meeke at the finish. “This is the home of rallying and Ouninpohja is the Holy Grail of rally stages. To win it in the way we did, it’s just been exceptional. I've been enjoying it like a small kid (...). What a result” It must also be said that Meeke was able to make use of the extensive experience acquired by Citroën Racing and TotalEnergies at previous editions of the rally on its unusual and incredibly fast stages, with their enormous jumps. Indeed, before Meeke’s impressive performance in Finland, nine-time world rally champions Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena had pulled off the extraordinary feat of winning the “Jyväskylä Grand Prix” three times: firstly in 2008 (Citroën C4 WRC), and then again in 2011 and 2012 in the DS3 WRC. It goes without saying that the Citroën Racing teams were familiar with the approach to such an event and the set-up required for this specific terrain.