Lancia's return to the top level of rallying still has a gravel-sized hole in it, and the marque has recruited two specialists to help fill it. Ahead of its home fast-gravel debut, the Stellantis-backed Lancia Corse HF programme ran Martins Sesks and Teemu Suninen in its Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale on the fast forest roads of Finland this week, a targeted development push before Rally Finland.
The Ypsilon has already proved quick on sealed surfaces, with Rally2-class wins in Croatia, the Canary Islands and Japan for factory drivers Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin. Gravel has been the missing piece: the car has yet to reach a podium on the loose, and Rally Finland, the championship's fastest event, is where that shortfall is most exposed.
Enter two drivers who know the terrain intimately. Sesks, the Latvian running a part-time WRC Rally1 campaign with M-Sport-Ford, took the wheel on Monday; Suninen, the Finn who leads the European Rally Championship and sits among the WRC2 contenders, drove on Tuesday. Both slotted in alongside Rossel and Gryazin across the test.
"We ran Martins Sesks and Teemu Suninen, because they bring valuable experience on surfaces they know particularly well," Lancia Corse said in a statement. "To optimise the car's settings, it is essential to multiply approaches and rely on varied feedback."
The logic is straightforward. Suninen finished second at Rally di Roma and races regularly on gravel; Sesks has built a reputation on quick, flowing stages. Neither will actually drive the Ypsilon in competition at Rally Finland. Sesks is committed to his Ford Puma Rally1 and lines up next at Rally Estonia, while Suninen continues his WRC2 and ERC campaigns, but their feedback is aimed squarely at the factory crews who will.
Lancia intends to field a five-car Ypsilon Rally2 entry at Rally Finland (July 30 to August 2), the marque's first crack at a full fast-gravel WRC round with the new machine. Rossel and Gryazin anchor the effort, joined by a wider group of Ypsilon runners as Lancia tests the breadth of its line-up on the sport's most demanding surface.
It is part of a busy mid-season testing period across the championship, with several crews logging unusual mileage before the gravel run-in. For Lancia, the brief is narrower and clearer: turn a car that wins on asphalt into one that can also fight on gravel, and do it in time for the event where the stopwatch is least forgiving.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/lancia-drafts-sesks-and-suninen-to-crack-wrc-gravel-puzzle). Visit for full coverage.*