Perez Storms to Victory in Finland

25-year-old Perez achieved top honours as well as first in Category 2 class during the Lahti Historic Rally, which marked the inaugural gravel EHRC event of the season.

Across two days, competitors faced twelve special stages and approximately 132 kilometres of challenging forest tracks. Perez demonstrated his exceptional proficiency in gravel rallying throughout the event.

Perez, usually recognised for his expertise with the Lancia Stratos, selected the Amigos Tequila Beer-sponsored Porsche Carrera RS for the Finnish gravel rally, a choice that led to commendable outcomes. He was joined by local co-driver Dale Bowen, who delivered pace notes consistently throughout the event.

The Porsche was looked after by Chesterfield based rally car experts Dansport, who did a tremendous job to keep the duo on the road.

Perez, the reigning British Historic Rally Champion produced a measured and intelligent drive across the two days.

He was Fastest on SS8 and SS11 on day two and consistently within the top three for the remainder of the rally, that got better as the weekend went on.

Friday’s, SS1 Kurri 1 saw Perez 4th overall in EHRC rankings, after the 9.51km stage with a time of 5 minutes 16 seconds.

Perez was competing against former World Rally Championship winner and local favourite Jari-Matti Latvala, along with co-driver Janni Hussi. The Finnish team demonstrated a strong start to the weekend, with Latvala leveraging his experience to maximise the capabilities of his new Toyota Celica. Despite this, Perez and Bowen remained focused on their objectives and maintained their position at the front of the field.

By the end of SS2 Vaartti 1, Perez had climbed into third place. In SS3 Ojassuo 1, Perez demonstrated increased speed, securing second place on the 8.95 km forest stage and maintaining third position overall. He continued to benefit from his performance, trailing Latvala by less than 30 seconds.

The following three stages repeated the morning's loop, during which Perez showed significant progress and signalled to Latvala his intent to challenge for position.

Perez was trailing the leader by four minutes, when Latvala’s charge came to a dramatic end on SS6, when a catastrophic engine failure forced an immediate retirement, putting Perez in command for Saturday’s day two..

Perez took an early lead and excelled when the rain started. By the end of SS7 Puujaa 1, he remained ahead by nearly 30 seconds over Poland’s Maciej Lubiak, who had been challenging him since the start on Friday in an identical Porsche.

Perez progressed and was fastest on SS8 Koivukeha 1, the 13.01km was a breeze for the pair and extending their EHRC lead as they went.

Lubiak was applying even more pressure on Perez, in the slippery conditions of SS9 Miehola 1 but the master of gravel rallying was on it and finished the stage 43 seconds ahead.

SS11 Koivukeha 2, saw a repeat of the earlier stage, Perez again was fastest and consistently lead the last stage of the rally to take overall victory.

In Category 2, Seb delivered another commanding performance to take class victory as well.

Afterwards a delighted Perez said:“It was a great weekend, my first time in Finland and was very enjoyable. The first day was a matter of getting to understand the roads of Finland and how to drive them. We built on pace bit by bit that played into our hands. It was a special place with amazing roads, with some of the most famous roads in the world of rallying.”