The Hyundai Motorsport N team's Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen did not collect any WRC points from Sardinia this time, but they gained a lot of valuable experience. The Finnish duo, who had to retire saturday, finished the rally in 24th place in the WRC2 class.

Competing with the CHL Sport Auto's Hyundai i20 N Rally2, Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen made it to the finish line in the WRC Rally Italia Sardegna. The sixth WRC round of the season did not turn out to be as expected for the Finnish duo.

Difficulties began on the first day of the rally on Friday, when a sharp stone punctured the tire on the third special stage, and the tire change took almost two minutes. Their position dropped to 20th in the WRC2 class, which Lindholm improved by three places on the last special stage of the day.

Bad luck continued on Saturday when, in addition to another tire change, the Finnish duo had to retire on the fourth special stage of the day due to a broken radiator. The front bumper of the Hyundai scraped the ground and the bumper partially broke from the impact, and as a result, one piece of the bumper hit the radiator and caused a hole.

The duo stopped and patched the radiator, but the day ended in retirement due to a lack of coolant.

"We plugged the leak on the special stage, but we didn't have enough water for the radiator, so we had to retire. The conditions here were really rough this year," Lindholm pointed out.

On the final day of the rally, the Finnish duo drove to the finish without problems. This time, no WRC points were added to their tally, but they gained valuable experience instead.

"This was our first rough and slow gravel rally with the Hyundai, and it was really important to reach the finish of such a rally and gather experience for us and our team for the future. Now that we had two cars competing in the rally, we were able to collect different insights and experiences for the future".

"Our car's drivability was good and balanced throughout the rally, and I enjoyed driving it. Especially on the first run through the technical and slow sections of the special stages, we were strong. Unfortunately, we just had exceptionally bad luck with us this year," Lindholm concludes.