Ott Tänak has continued his domination of day one of Arctic Rally Finland, winning both of Friday’s two stages to hold a strong overnight lead over Hyundai team-mate Craig Breen and Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä.
Tänak headed into the repeat pass of Sarriojärvi – held in the darkness – defending a 3.6-second lead over Breen, having utilized his starting position of seventh on the road to set the pace.
The road was in a rather different state with gravel protruding through the snow and ice due to the unexpectedly warm temperatures and the fact a 66-strong field of cars had already tackled the test.
That put an onus on tire management, as Tänak explained: “I knew when I saw the Toyotas that it’s going to be a disaster for the tires.
“I tried to be as nice as possible at the beginning but after 10 kilometers I felt like s*** they’re finished and I have 20km to go. It’s so difficult, it’s such a hard surface.”
Photo: McKlein Image Database
Tänak needn’t have worried however, as by outpacing Breen by 12.6s and Rovanperä by 9.8s, the 2019 World Rally Champion now leads by 16.2s with Rovanperä 20.4s back.
Rovanperä described his run as “not good” after his front tires were “completely gone” but for Breen it was worse.
“It was very, very tricky,” Breen assessed.
“I really wasn’t trying to protect them because I didn’t think I was at the risk of losing the studs so I lost a lot at the end.”
Further back, Toyota’s Elfyn Evans nibbled 2.1s from fourth-placed Thierry Neuville on SS2 despite describing the stage as “not easy”.
Evans added: “Quite a lot of loose snow and quite often it was difficult to get the car turned in, but yeah, we tried.”
Photo: McKlein Image Database
Neither Evans nor Neuville could live with the trio ahead of them who were all quicker again on Sarriojärvi 2, but Hyundai’s Neuville was “quite satisfied” with his performance despite some integration problems with co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe on the pair’s second WRC event together.
“I had a lot of understeer towards the end, I really thought I was punctured so I took out some of the speed towards,” said Neuville.
“And also with Martijn sometimes I find it difficult to clearly understand so we need to work on that.”
Teemu Suninen is the highest placed M-Sport Ford in sixth place, profiting from a puncture for Pierre-Louis Loubet. The Frenchman stopped to change the offending tire, losing him well over three minutes.
Suninen admitted “I was on my limits” and that “the rhythm felt quite good” as he set the sixth fastest time.
Takamoto Katsuta made it through what he called a “scary” stage in the dark but picked up a puncture towards the end after hitting a “big log on the inside so after that I needed to slow down”. He is now seventh overall, 4.2s behind Suninen.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
Reigning champion Sébastien Ogier doesn’t often find himself lagging towards the bottom end of the leaderboard and behind all three of his Toyota team-mates, but the Monte Carlo Rally winner is down in ninth overnight, restricted by being the first car on the road.
“I do what I can but it’s quite difficult,” said Ogier.
“Let’s see where we are tomorrow but it looks like we’ll be quite far already, so let’s give everything we have,” he added before knowing his final classification. He lies 49.8s adrift of the overnight lead.
Oliver Solberg is now the lead 2C Competition Hyundai on his first weekend in a WRC car as a result of team-mate Loubet’s problems, and lies 3.9s ahead of seven-time WRC Champion Ogier. Solberg was an impressive fourth fastest on SS2.
“I’m starting to understand everything now so it was very enjoyable,” he said.
Photo: McKlein Image Database
Gus Greensmith was 11th fastest on SS1 but found more confidence on the second pass of the stage, outpacing Ogier’s Toyota Yaris WRC in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC. He has climbed up into the points and 10th overall, 1m05.8s shy of the lead.
Asked to describe how his stage felt, Greensmith said: “Pretty *** damn good. That for me was better than the first pass but we gave away so much time on the first stage. Pretty disappointing but at least it’s not too bad now.”
Esapekka Lappi continues to lead WRC2 in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, winning both of Friday’s stages to head team-mate Nikolay Gryazin by 13.6s. Monte Carlo winner Andreas Mikkelsen is third, edging Gryazin by 0.1s on SS2 but trailing by 2.7s overall, 16.3s back from Lappi.
Emil Lindholm heads up WRC3 in his Škoda ahead of Teemu Asunmaa, but it’s now Egon Kaur that’s third after previous incumbent Johan Kristoffersson struggled on SS2 and slid to sixth.
SS2 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 15m52.9s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +9.8s
3 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai) +12.6s
4 Oliver Solberg/Seb Marshall (Hyundai) +14.8s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +15.3s
6 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (M-Sport Ford) +15.7s
Leading positions after SS2
1 Tänak/Järveoja (Hyundai) 31m50.7s
2 Breen/Nagle (Hyundai) +16.2s
3 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) +20.4s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +29.8s
5 Evans/Martin (Toyota) +32.0s
6 Suninen/Markkula (M-Sport Ford) +34.5s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +38.8s
8 Solberg/Marshall (Hyundai) +45.9s
9 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +49.8s
10 Gus Greensmith/Elliott Edmondson (M-Sport Ford) +1m05.8s
