Molly Taylor has finished her three-round FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) stint with her best result after ending Rally Finland inside the top 20.
It’s been a difficult return to the international championship for the 2016 RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) winner having not finished her previous two events at Rally Estonia and Rally Greece.
However, with M-Sport’s Fiesta ST Rally3 primed for a strong result and Taylor having already had previous experience on the roads of the Finnish Lakeland, a strong finish was on the cards.
And the 33-year-old certainly delivered as she and co-driver Seb Marshall showed plenty of pace throughout the three-day event.
Starting with a P37 on the first stage of the weekend, Taylor improved significantly throughout Friday’s six stages as she picked up to two times inside the top 30 to end the day in P29.
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Her best set of results came during the event’s biggest day on Saturday where the 40 plus crews completed nine stages – six of which saw Taylor finish inside the top 30.
It was on Saturday where Taylor’s strongest stage result came too as she posted the 22nd fastest time on the penultimate stage – just two minutes and 40 seconds shy of WRC star and stage winner Elfyn Evans.
Unfortunately, Taylor’s last stage of the day didn’t end so well and she placed P30, however she still ended Saturday’s action in P22 respectively.
On the final day, the Australian placed inside the top 30 on all four stages, including three consecutive P27s to move up to 20th on the standings.
The weekend was her strongest at WRC international event and the second-best WRC finish of her career ever, falling behind only her P13 during 2016’s Rally Australia.
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Click here to see the full results from Rally Finland.
Taylor will continue to stay overseas with her next appearance to be in Extreme E where she leads the inaugural series thanks to wins in rounds one and two.
The Extreme E Series heads to Sardinia in Italy for the Island X Prix on 23-24 October.
