KNA Rally Finnskog in Norway - new R5 record time!

29.01.2019

Nikolay Gryazin and Yaroslav Fedorov keep training before their debut start in the World Rally Championship. Last weekend, the crew won the KNA Rally Finnskog in Norway.

It was the fourth time of our crew' participating in Rally Finnskog. This year the rally has lost its status of Norway championship round, so there was a little chance to encounter a large number of really fast opponents. Because of that, the crew focused on preparation for Rally Sweden, especially since the special stages of Rally Finnskog are quite similar to the next WRC event' stages.

Nikolay was the fastest on each of the six rally stages and finished nearly 7 minutes ahead of the closest rival. Moreover, the crew set the new time record between R5 cars on SS Varaldskogen, improved it by 7 seconds. The previous record was held by Mads Østberg.

Meanwhile, the main task was to prepare for Rally Sweden, and our crew fulfilled it.

Nikolay Gryazin: "Of course, it's a pity that there was no serious competition: after the problems of Frank Tore Larsen, we did not have the opportunity to compare our results with him. So, we focused on other targets.

We managed to drive the rally in different conditions. We were first on the road in the morning and had run on the fresh snow, without having the other crews' lines in sight. On the second loop, we drove in the conditions most likely awaiting us in Sweden. We had the lines of other crews and had to go strictly within, even if such trajectory weren't the optimal one.

In addition, on the last two special stages of the rally we had run on worn tires, and this is another situation we can also expect in Sweden. We were very pleased with the race and once again were able to check our suspension settings."

Next stop before WRC Rally Sweden is the Sarma rally in Latvia. This winter rally consists of 6 special stages with a total length of 100,16 km and starts on February 9.

Information via www.nikolay-gryazin.com