Lukander to hang up helmet after Catalunya.

Veteran co-driver Paavo Lukander has announced that he is to retire from co-driving - meaning that Rally Catalunya this weekend will be his final event in the sport.

Lukander, who has partnered Skoda driver Toni Gardemeister throughout his WRC career, will call time on his career after 71 events in Spain, with the Skoda team not taking part in the final event of the year in Australia next month.

"I have been thinking about this for a long time," Lukander said. "With 16 rounds next year I won't have time to give sufficient concentration to everything I want in my life so it is right to stop now. I need to take care of the people who work for me and I want to be able to spend more time with friends."

The 43-year-old Finn is now set to spend more time focused on his other job as managing director of a timber factory, and will also be able to devote more time to his other passion of ice-hockey - where Lukander also spends time helping out a local sports programmed aimed at steering young Finns away from drugs.

For Gardemeister it will be a weird sensation to compete with someone else alongside him, but he hopes his soon to be former co-driver will still be able to spend time on the WRC stage.

"I needed a co-driver like Paavo when I started rallying because he had more experience of life and the pressures involved," he said. "Without him I couldn't have got this far - he was a steadying influence when I was young and wild! It will be strange not to have him sitting alongside me next season but I hope he will still find time to come and visit the WRC."