Elfyn Evans has stormed into the lead of Rally Estonia with a sensational time on a dry, first forest stage of the event.
Six cars were spread by less than a second after Thursday evening’s Tartu superspecial, but gaps began to widen on SS2 Peipisääre – the opening stage of Friday and the longest test of the entire weekend.
Evans headed onto the stage third overall, two tenths down on overnight leader Craig Breen, but exited as the new rally leader, shading home hero Ott Tänak.
Tänak had set the early pace on, beating road sweeper Kalle Rovanperä by 3.9 seconds, and therefore looked good for his first stage win of the weekend.
But then Evans came along, smashing Tänak’s effort by four seconds to vault into the rally lead – despite feeling “not fully relaxed yet”.
“Actually it wasn’t such a nice feeling, to be honest,” he said. “It was OK at points but not fully comfortable let’s say.”
For his part, Tänak did feel like his Hyundai lost some power towards the end of the stage, which may have explained why he shipped a couple of seconds in the last split.
“The car I felt at the beginning quite OK and then lacking a bit of power, maybe the front grille was closed or something,” he said. “Otherwise, quite OK run.”
Despite rain not arriving overnight to make his job easier at the head of the running order, championship leader Rovanperä managed to punch in the third fastest time to lie 7.8s down on his rally-leading team-mate.
But he did confess he was “lucky” as he “hit one rock quite hard” during Peipisääre.
Breen’s M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 is the only other car within 10s of the rally lead, sitting 8.3s down on Evans after SS2.
“[I’m] just happy to get one run over a stage,” Breen said. “Car feels great I have to say, I’m confident with it so good to get it like that.”
Just two stages into the rally, Thierry Neuville is already occupying a space of no man’s land in fifth overall, six seconds behind Breen by 4.8s ahead of Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi.
Lappi was an expected frontrunner in Estonia this weekend but he dropped 18.6s to stage winner Evans in equal machinery as he struggled to find a feeling with his brakes.
“I’m missing the braking bite completely,” he said. “The surface is OK but something strange with the pads, it just feels it doesn’t bite when I touch the pedal so it’s taking the confidence [away].”
Oliver Solberg was good for the seventh fastest time to assume the same position overall, struggling to find a decent rhythm on a stage that was brand-new to him.
“It’s very difficult, this stage is crazy!” he said.
Takamoto Katsuta was also surprisingly slow in his Toyota Next Generation-entered Yaris, dropping over half a minute on SS2.
Katsuta, who has never finished Rally Estonia in three previous attempts, crashed on Thursday’s shakedown and had not previously contested the Peipisääre stage either, retiring from the rally before it ran last year.
“Let’s say I was way too careful but I didn’t drive this stage last year, so I needed to see how it was going,” Katsuta said.
“I needed patience, but as soon as I get that good feeling I will go push.”
Katsuta is down to 11th overall as a result of caution, trailing a trio of Pumas.
Adrien Fourmaux leads that pack, 0.3s ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet who is, in turn, just 0.8s clear of Gus Greensmith who was disappointed with his effort.
“I never found a good rhythm and my braking points were in the wrong place so it wasn’t very good, to be honest,” Greensmith rued. “Not a good start.”
