Kalle Rovanperä leads a tricky Secto Rally Finland after Friday morning as World Rally Championship rival Ott Tänak crashed and Takamoto Katsuta smacked a tree and retired on the road section.
Tänak became the event’s first major retirement when he crashed out early on SS3 Saarikas – a brand-new stage for Rally Finland.
The Estonian’s Hyundai came to rest on its side in a ditch just over a mile into the stage after he lost the rear, tipped over and hit a tree. While Tänak was OK, co-driver Martin Järveoja was taken to hospital for further checks.
Thierry Neuville had hoped for rain as first car on the road, and his rain dance worked with full wet conditions on Friday morning. Yet he described the first stage as a “disaster” as the “diffs were opening a lot” on his Hyundai leading to him either struggling to turn his Hyundai or fighting sudden oversteer.
That disaster turned into a nightmare on SS3 when Neuville massively missed his braking and shot off down a firebreak.
“There’s a blind corner over a crest, obviously my pacenote wasn’t precise enough to know exactly where the corner was so I just went slightly straight,” Neuville said. “I hit the gas and we slipped away so I had to go backwards.”
Neuville finds himself fifth on the leaderboard, 13.9 seconds (around what he lost with his overshoot) off the lead which is being disputed between a pack of Toyotas.
Evans set the pace on the opening Laukaa stage before Kalle Rovanperä hit back on Saarikas – the pair of them leaping past Sébastien Ogier who briefly led after SS2.
But Evans made his move on the legendary Myhinpää test, outpacing Rovanperä by 2.0s to claim a 1.2s advantage. But the world champion was not happy, shaking his head as he coasted towards the stop control.
“There was a big shower for us towards the end of the stage, but it has been a difficult morning with the car also,” he rued.
“I have been trying to do a setup change for each stage, but this one was f****** horrible, I am struggling so much with understeer. I cannot do much more.”
However he responded with aplomb on the loop-concluding Ruuhimäki to wrestle the lead back off Evans, who described his SS5 performance as a “bit clumsy”, albeit by just 0.2s.
“We again made some changes to the car and finally it maybe a bit better,” Rovanperä said.
“On this rally it’s all about really small details to be fast with the car. Hopefully we can find something for the afternoon.”
On his first Rally Finland in a Rally1 car, Ogier is third overall – just 3.0s off the lead – despite a wild moment on Ruuhimäki where he skirted a ditch with the rear of his Yaris.
“For sure we are all driving on the limit, and in this condition it’s not easy,” Ogier said. “This moment cost me a bit of time as well – that’s how it is.”
His moment was nothing compared to Katsuta’s though, who prior to SS5 had been holding on to fourth by just 0.5s over Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi.
Katsuta, who had described his driving as “embarrassing” and “proper s***” on SS2, ran off-line and whacked a tree early on Ruuhimäki, damaging the rear-right of his Toyota.
The rear wheel was clinging on at a 90-degree angle to the arch, but Katsuta was able to complete the stage, albeit after losing well over a minute.
Katsuta attempted to repair his Toyota, but to no avail and he was forced out of the event on the road section.
Sami Pajari’s Rally1 debut got off to a lively start on Friday morning, first when he spun his Toyota on SS2 and then when he ran wide and slipped into a ditch rear-first, rearranging the rear of his Yaris in the process.
“It’s just extremely tricky, because I don’t know where I am,” commented a slightly flustered Pajari at the stage-end. “But OK we can keep going so it’s fine.”
However, by the next stage Pajari admitted the difference without a rear wing was “huge”, adding: “It feels like you have a puncture all the time at the rear.”
The young Finn finds himself eighth as a result, struggling for pace without the benefit of proper aerodynamics on the lightning-fast stage.
In unpredictable conditions, it appeared as if M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux opted for caution over courageous pace to sit an uncharacteristic sixth overall five stages into the event.
But the Frenchman was frustrated by his lack of progress which he felt was stunted by M-Sport not doing a pre-event test.
“It’s a disaster,” he said after SS4 Myhinpää. “We had no test before the rally and it’s a disaster. I try my best but definitely not easy.”
Team-mate Grégoire Munster is seventh overall; his challenge hurt by stalling his engine under braking on the day’s opening test. The M-Sport driver is already over a minute off the lead.
