Tommi Mäkinen

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Tommi Mäkinen
A retired Mäkinen writing autographs during Rally Finland 2004.
World Rally Championship record
Nationality	Finnish
Active years	1987 - 2003
Teams	Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru
World rallies	139
Championships	4 (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999)
Wins	24
Podium finishes	45
Stage wins	362
Points	544
First world rally	1987 1000 Lakes Rally
First win	1994 1000 Lakes Rally
Last win	2002 Monte Carlo Rally
Last world rally	2003 Rally Great Britain
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Tommi Antero Mäkinen (pronounced /tom-mi mæ-ki-nen/ in IPA) is a now retired Finnish rally driver, born in Puuppola, Finland near Jyväskylä in June 1964. As of 1999 he lived in both Monaco and Jyväskylä, married with two children. Mäkinen is one of the most successful WRC drivers of all time, ranking first in championships (4), tied with Juha Kankkunen, and fourth in wins (24).

He is a four-time World Rally Champion, a series he first won, and then successfully defended, continuously throughout 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, on all occasions driving the Ralliart Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. He also won the 2000 Race of Champions. Tommi's WRC navigators include fabled compatriots Seppo Harjanne and Risto Mannisenmäki, the former retiring from alongside Mäkinen having previously served 1985 title winner, and fellow 'Flying Finn', Timo Salonen.

Mäkinen proved a late developer by the standards of some in rallying circles, only nabbing his first full-time manufacturer seat in 1995 - but success was to prove spontaneous thereafter. His first world rally win, of an eventual total of 24, came on the 1994 1000 Lakes Rally (now Neste Rally Finland), in Ford Escort RS Cosworth machinery. Mitsubishi provided him with a full-time chance in their burgeoning Lancer Evolution for the following year, alongside former Group A rally champion Kenneth Eriksson.

A cultured Safari Rally win in 1996 proved the platform, on which to build a dominant championship lead, which he consolidated by taking the title, in Australia, away from Colin McRae - a long-time rival. He won every World Rally Champion from 1996-9. In 2000 he finally relinquished his grasp on the title. That year Mitsubishi produced a 'Tommi Mäkinen edition' of the road version of the Lancer Evolution VI. This car had a different front bumper than the regular evo vi and some models also featured a red and white paint job to closely resemble Tommi Makinen's rally car.^[1].

He remained with Mitsubishi until the end of the 2001 season - but not before virtually ending co-driver Mannisenmäki's top-line career with a bad crash on the mountainside roads of the Corsican round that broke the co-driver's back.

A move to Subaru yielded one more, final career victory, on the 2002 Monte Carlo Rally where a technical infringement on behalf of on-the-road winner, and emerging talent, Sébastien Loeb, allowed him to upstage the Frenchman. But his form then took a dive and he was not to add again to his tally of world titles.

He retired from the sport at the end of the 2003 season with 3rd place on that year's Rally Great Britain.