Marko Salminen Explained

Marko Salminen (born 10 October 1978) is a Finnish rally co-driver. He has been competing in the Junior World Rally Championship as the co-driver of Sami Pajari and in the Finnish Rally Championship alongside Teemu Asunmaa, Teemu Suninen and Valtteri Bottas. As announced on the 3. December 2024 Salminen is returning to co-drive Sami Pajari, driving 2025 for the Toyta Gazoo Racing WRC team in a GR Yaris Rally1 car.

Rally career

Marko Salminen began his rally career in the 2008 Rally Sweden, co-driving for Jussi Tiippana in a Subaru Impreza STi N12.^[1]

Starting from 2019 season, Salminen partnered with Teemu Suninen in M-Sport Ford WRT. Before the season began, the Finnish crew made their debut cooperation in the 2018 Monza Rally Show, where they finished as the runner-up, just behind the MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.^[2]

In Corsica, Salminen scored his first WRC points, finishing fifth overall.^[3] Only days before the start of Rally Sardinia 2019, Salminen was replaced as co-driver for Suninen in favour of the more experienced Jarmo Lehtinen.

He was the co-driver of Sami Pajari in 2020 Junior WRC, and is set to resume their partnership from onwards.^[4]

Rally results

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15		Points
2008	Motoring Club	Subaru Impreza STi N14	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	JOR	ITA	GRE	TUR								NC	0
	Subaru Rally Team USA										FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	GBR
2011	Juha Salo	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X	SWE	MEX	POR	JOR	ITA	ARG	GRE									NC	0
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X R4								FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP	GBR
2012	Proton Motorsports	Proton Satria Neo S2000	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP			NC	0
2013	Hannu's Rally Team	Subaru Impreza STi R4	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	ITA	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP				NC	0
	ADAC Weser-Ems	Citroën DS3 R3T													GBR
2014	Henri Haapamäki	Citroën C2 R2	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP				NC	0
	Hannu's Rally Team	Citroën DS3 R3T													GBR
2015	Hannu's Rally Team	Citroën DS3 R3T Max	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP	GBR			NC	0
2016	Juha Salo	Peugeot 208 T16	MON	SWE	MEX	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	CHN	FRA	ESP	GBR	AUS		NC	0
2017	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	ESP	GBR	AUS			NC	0
2018	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	Ford Fiesta R5	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA	ARG	POR	ITA	FIN	GER	TUR	GBR	ESP	AUS			NC	0
2019	M-Sport Ford WRT	Ford Fiesta WRC	MON	SWE	MEX	FRA	ARG	CHL	POR	ITA	FIN	GER	TUR	GBR	ESP	AUS		12th	44
2020	Team Flying Finn	Ford Fiesta R2T	MON	SWE	MEX	EST	TUR	ITA	MNZ									NC	0
2021	Teemu Asunmaa	Škoda Fabia R5 Evo	MON	ARC								FIN						NC	0
	Porvoon Autopalvelu	Ford Fiesta Rally4			CRO	POR	ITA	KEN	EST	BEL	GRE		ESP	MNZ

* Season still in progress.

External links

• Marko Salminen's e-wrc profile

Notes and References

1. Web site: Marko Salminen. e-wrc.com. 17 October 2018.
2. News: Rossi's Seventh Monza Success. wrc.com. WRC Promoter GmbH. 10 December 2018. 11 December 2018.
3. News: Sunday in Corsica: Neuville profits from Evans Despair. wrc.com. WRC. 31 March 2019. 1 April 2019.
4. News: Luke. Barry. Pajari confirms his new co-driver. dirtfish.com. 3 December 2024. 3 December 2024.