Kalle Rovanperä leads Rally Finland after Friday’s stages, having slightly extended his advantage to 4.9 seconds over the afternoon’s tests.
But the leaderboard remains very close, with just 3.2s separating Thierry Neuville, Adrien Fourmaux and Takamoto Katsuta in second, third and fourth, and the top seven covered by less than 30s.
Heavy rain fell while the crews were at lunchtime service, making for tricky conditions throughout the afternoon. Katsuta won the loop’s first stage, joking that perhaps the rain had helped him. “Maybe a few places I was missing some balls, not committed enough, but in places like this it’s quite good,” he laughed.
But Rovanperä hit back on his favored Saarikas test, despite claiming that his car’s setup was “scary” for the conditions. “The car was so bad in the ruts, I was all over the place,” he said. “Luckily it worked for me time-wise but I almost went off once because it’s so unstable.”
Rovanperä then set the joint fastest time with Fourmaux on the second pass of Myhinpää. He was beaten only by Neuville on the shorter Ruuhimäki and within a second of the pace through the Harju street stage.
“It definitely feels better than not leading,” smiled Rovanperä. “Nice day, not easy by any means. Not really in my comfort zone at the moment, but I’m pushing quite hard.”
World champion Thierry Neuville leads the Hyundai contingent despite not being a fan of the super-fast Finnish stages
Neuville actually matched Rovanperä’s total time through the afternoon stages as he climbed from fifth to second after making setup changes to stabilize the rear end of his Hyundai. Fastest through Ruuhimäki, he was never outside the top four on all five stages.
“A good approach and a good day for us,” he summarized. “I feel a bit better in the car this afternoon as well. We made some changes on the car and I found some more progressivity and consistency – that’s what I was a bit missing this morning.”
Fourmaux is 2.8s behind his Hyundai team-mate as the crews head back to service, declaring himself “really satisfied with the pace today”. As well as matching Rovanperä’s best time through Myhinpää, he topped the Harju street stage, but was disappointed that softening the car too much had cost him time on Ruuhimäki.
Fourmaux traded times with Katsuta and is just 0.4s ahead of the second Toyota. Katsuta found life difficult in the wet, rutted conditions of Ruuhimäki, which he labeled as a “horrible, horrible stage”. Nevertheless, he could celebrate his 50th career fastest time on Laukaa in the knowledge that he is a genuine contender for victory.
Team-mate Sami Pajari is fifth, another 7.6s back, after a very encouraging day. Dropping 4s on the Harju street stage has, however, left him in the clutches of the fourth Toyota of Sébastien Ogier. The eight-time world champion, winner of Rally Finland last year, is 1.9s down on Pajari in sixth, still only 17.6s off the lead.
Third on the road, Ogier had to deal with some of the worst of the puddles on Friday afternoon
Second and third on the road, Ogier and team-mate Elfyn Evans had to contend with sweeping the stages through the morning loop and then facing the worst of the afternoon’s unpredictable grip levels and standing water.
“I think we did not a bad day,” said Ogier. “One stage this morning we lacked commitment, we lost a bit of time. From our road position we did a decent job.”
Evans, another 8.4s back in seventh, was also reasonably satisfied with his efforts. “The morning I felt was pretty strong considering the way the road was evolving,” he said. “This afternoon it’s also been quite tricky, so a bit disappointed with how the day’s gone overall.
“It’s not a bad job, I don’t think. It’s just the conditions haven’t really worked with us. The gaps still aren’t too big so we’ll keep at it.”
After a Friday to forget, Tänak faces another difficult day on Saturday
Toyota’s world title hopeful fared better than his Hyundai rival. Championship leader Ott Tänak was never happy, reckoning “the package is not good enough to open quickly the road”. He then lost the rear of his i20 under braking in the afternoon’s second stage, and slid into a tree at relatively low speed.
The impact damaged the front-right corner of the car but Tänak was able to continue having lost only around 15s. Despite the car’s hood flapping on the following stages and a potential engine issue, Tänak limited his further time loss, suffering most on Myhinpää where he dropped 17.5s to the leaders.
But Tänak did drop behind the leading M-Sport Ford Pumas of Mārtiņš Sesks and Josh McErlean. Sesks is 14.5s behind Evans in eighth, with McErlean another 25.5s back in ninth. Tänak completes the top 10, 1.2s behind McErlean. Crucially, that will leave him second on the road for Saturday’s eight stages.
M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster completes the Rally1 runners, another 12.2s back after a difficult day. A loose rear end caused a couple of moments in the morning, hurting Munster’s confidence and leaving him on the back foot.
