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Immonen completes Finnish joy in Latvia

He won the 2WD category with his Citroën C2 R2 Max

By

4 February 2013 - 19:22

Finnish rallying fans had double reason to celebrate at the finish of Rally Liepāja-Ventspils last week.

Not only did Jari Ketomaa claim outright honours on the FIA European Rally Championship event in western Latvia, Risto Immonen left the country as the top ERC 2WD Championship contender.

The Citroën star had been in a close battle with Frenchman Stéphane Lefebvre, which raged until Sunday morning when a gearbox glitch halted Lefebvre’s progress and relegated the Peugeot 208 R2 driver to second place behind the flying Finn.

“We had some big moments but we tried to push and in the end this result is very good,” said Immonen, whose C2 R2 Max was co-driven by fellow Finn Mikko Lukka. They finished 15th overall.

Finland has a strong track record in the ERC: last year’s outright champion, Juho Hänninen, is a Finn.