For many, Rally Finland’s Ouninpohja stage is the greatest piece of road in rallying and this weekend it returns to the World Rally Championship for the first time in full since 2016.
The long overdue comeback of this 32.98km gravel rollercoaster is a major talking point at this year’s edition of the event dubbed the “Gravel Grand Prix”. To outline just how much this stage is ingrained and loved by Finnish rally fans, event organisers have created an Ouninpohja merchandise range for this year’s rally.
In previous years, sections of this stage have been used but this season the full stage will be unleashed for the first time after a seven-year hiatus on Saturday, a feat which has been made possible following the introduction of a virtual chicane to slow the 500 horsepower Rally1 cars.
But why is this stage so revered? WRC drivers complete hundreds of stages across a season so it takes something special for one particular road to stand out from the crowd.
Ouninpohja is just that thanks to its blend of high-speed undulating crests, blind jumps and sweeping bends that require ultimate respect and commitment to conquer.
Over the years this stage has provided countless moments of high and lows. Then-factory Subaru driver Petter Solberg set a mesmerising stage record [15m18.5s] in 2004 that prompted the now-immortalised “it gets faster now” line from co-driver Phil Mills. While this stage rewards perfection and commitment it can bite hard as the pair are among a cast of high-profile drivers, including Richard Burns, Elfyn Evans, Dani Sordo, Kris Meeke and Jari-Matti Latvala, to name just five, to have crashed out on this very stage.
As two-time world champion and Finnish favourite Marcus Gronholm, explains: "Every time you start that stage you are a little bit nervous it is super fast, but you are happy when you come to the finish and you see a good time, it is perfect, before it is not."
Current championship leader Thierry Neuville, who has experienced this road before, perhaps summed up just why this stage is held in such high regard.
“Ouninpohja in that version is definitely a piece of art, and it's a proper roller coaster. When everything goes well, it's one of the most beautiful moments you can live in a rally car, if it doesn't work as you want, it is the worst,” said Neuville.
Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier also has previous experience of this version of Ouninpohja, and like Neuville, he feels it can produce an adrenaline rush like no other.
“It's one of the most crazy and enjoyable stages to drive in the championship if you have a good feeling, because you need to be really committed and really feel 100% with the car to drive on the limit on such a road. But when you meet this point, it is hard to beat the adrenaline and the sensation you can have in the stage,” said Ogier.
But what is required to achieve to conquer the stage and achieve this rush?
Ogier’s Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans offered an insight into the mental capacity and trust that is needed in not only the machinery, but the pace notes to successfully tame this roller coaster.
“It's been a while since we've used that first part of it [this stage], obviously it's super fast and critical to have all your lines correct. It is exciting but it is also a challenge. You really have to have confidence in your notes.
“You have to visualise, and you have to try and estimate how much the car is going to fly [over the jumps] and how much speed you can therefore carry.”
WRC2 title contender Oliver Solberg has religiously studied the onboard of his father’s 2004 record run and with every viewing his respect for the stage increases. The Swede says that even passing through the test in recce conditions provided a challenge.
“Obviously, I watched my dad video 100’s of times, and you have big respect when you watch it. But when you then see the road for the first time in real life, now I have even more respect for my dad, it's incredible,” said Oliver Solberg.
“First pass through on the recce was so difficult because I have never done the stage before. You come over the crest and you're like, is it going right, is it going left? It's a proper, proper roller coaster.
“I think the first 10 kilometres is proper. It is the coolest road I have seen.”
While it is difficult to comprehend how the world’s best rally drivers navigate through Ouninpohja at pace, what is for certain whoever comes out on top of the timesheets on Saturday will have most certainly earned it.
