Anton Alén and co-driver Timo Alanne were cruelly denied a victory in Group N on the Neste Oil Rally Finland on Sunday, after a broken engine in their Abarth Grande Punto S2000 scuppered their chances on the final day whilst in the lead of the category. Until this point, the duo had not only put in another impressive performance for the S2000 car on unfamiliar terrain, but had even been setting times competitive with the slower World Rally Cars.

Alén was in fact originally employed by Abarth to compete on WRC events such as Rally Finland with the Grande Punto S2000, a car which has already demonstrated considerable success at the regional level.  However, on sweeping gravel roads very similar to that of Finland, Alén and Alanne took a well-judged and vitally important victory three weeks ago for Abarth in the IRC Rally Russia. It was to be hoped that this performance could be replicated on the famed Finnish roads, widely regarded as probably the most challenging for drivers on the calendar, and early hopes were upheld – after a relatively cautious start on the Killeri superspecial in Jvaskyla on Thursday evening, Alén claimed the fastest Group N time on the first five ‘proper’ forest stages of the event, climbing as high as 19th overall.

The son of world rally legend Markku, who took Fiat Auto cars to victory on the 1000 Lakes on six occasions, Anton proved himself thoroughly at home on the tricky and extremely fast Finnish roads throughout the first day. His lead was such that, even with a relatively slow time on SS7 (losing some forty seconds to the leading Group N runners), he kept the Group N lead and 20th overall, even if the former had now been sliced to a wafer-thin two seconds over Matti Rantanen and Jan Lönegren in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8.

Remaining unruffled, the #61 Abarth was once again the fastest Group N car through stages 8 and 9.  However, all went amiss on the final forest stage of day 1, Jukojarvi, which saw Alén lose over a minute and a half with an off, from which he was unable to immediately resume. From 20th overall at the beginning of the stage, the mistake dropped him to 26th and left him fourth in Group N, behind Rantanen, Aki Teiskonen (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) and Sweden’s Patrik Flodin (Subaru Impreza). Concluding day 1 with another run around the Killeri superspecial, the Abarth pilot finished the day in the same position, one which did not accurately reflect his performance throughout the day. Matters would not remain static for long, however.
 

Beginning on the opening stage of day 2 (Kaipolanvuori), Alén quickly set about regaining the category lead.  He would be second-fastest Group N runner on SS12, and then fastest on the next two stages – 15th overall on SS13, equal with Ford Focus WRC driver Luis Perez Companc, and a superb 14th overall on the first run through the infamous and ultra-fast Ouninpohja test. From 26th overall, the performance catapulted him up the leaderboard to the Group N lead and 19th overall by the end of SS14, albeit aided by a number of retirements. For the rest of the day’s stages he would continue to set times consistently around the top 15 overall, and remain clearly the second-fastest Group N car on the stages, behind only impressive young Finn Jari Ketomaa, who was fighting back through the leaderboard after problems on the first leg.

Further retirements throughout the leg of those further up the leaderboard, including Juho Hänninen (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC), Dani Sordo (Citroën C4 WRC) and Petter Solberg (Subaru Impreza WRC 2007), meant that Anton was up to 16th overall by the beginning of SS16, the second run through the fearsome Ouninpohja. He would remain in this position until the end of the day, with only three short stages to run on the Sunday, covering a total of around 40km.  Despite the lost time on the first day, the Grande Punto was hot on the heels of the tail-end WRC cars, and 1:20.8 ahead of his nearest Group N rival, Patrik Flodin’s Subaru Impreza.

However, disaster was to strike at the beginning of the final day.  In a scene eerily reminiscent of the fate suffered by fellow Abarth driver Andrea Navarra on the IRC Rali Vinho da Madeira, running concurrently this weekend, the Grande Punto failed to start in the service park.  However, unlike Navarra’s car, in which the fault was traced to a loose spark plug, the problems for Alén and Alanne were more terminal, resulting in their retirement. Despite the disappointment of losing such a promising result, however, Alén and Abarth could take heart from the Grande Punto’s performance on this, one of the most demanding performance rallies in the world.

by Shant Fabricatorian