Lindholm: Finland return a one-off

Sebastian Lindholm insists his return to the FIA World Rally Championship on Neste Oil Rally Finland last week was a one-off and has ruled out any further appearances in the global series.

Lindholm, 51, came out of retirement to contest the high-speed gravel round in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC last week, his first appearance on his home round of the world championship since 2005 and his first start in the WRC since Wales Rally GB in 2007.

“I won’t come back again, I’m happy with what I’ve done,” Lindholm said. “I wanted to do this rally once more and it was really nice to be at the finish because when you do a rally like this for fun it wouldn’t be very nice to go off. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I wanted to do the rally. In 2005 we had to stop after day one because my co-driver had a back problem and in 2004 I went off in the Ouninpohja stage. Now I’ve been able to go through Ouninpohja without an accident. That feels good.”

Lindholm finished 14th and revealed some of the difficulties he encountered on his return to competition after several seasons away. “Of course it was very hard because I had no test, no rallies,” he said. “But it was not my goal to come here to do a good result, it was just to enjoy myself. That’s why we decided for the first two days to take number one on the road, just to be first on the road even though it was very difficult.”

Lindholm now plans to follow the progress of his younger son Emil, who is embarking on his motorsport career aged 16. “I don’t know if he can follow me [and compete in the WRC] because it’s too early to say,” said Lindholm. “If I could decide I would suggest he chooses singing and music because he’s very good at that [and it’s cheaper for me] but I’m afraid motorsport seems number one for him.”