Elfyn Evans is the man out front on Rally Finland after Friday’s stages, but Thierry Neuville is looming large just 6.9 seconds behind him.
M-Sport Ford’s contenders were the first to strike trouble, with Ott Tänak hitting some bedrock and Pierre-Louis Loubet striking a tree on SS3 to end their day early.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi found the trees on the next stage, then on SS8 rally leader Kalle Rovanperä rolled out. That set up a lead battle between Toyota’s Evans and Hyundai’s Neuville for the final two stages of the day, with Evans holding an advantage of 9.7s heading onto the final stage.
Neuville was on full attack from the off, and posted an incredible time that was 5.9s faster than Takamoto Katsuta’s benchmark. Neuville had posted a statement that the victory fight was on.
Evans was last in, and was potentially facing a severely reduced lead. He lost 1.1s to Neuville in the first kilometer, but in the remaining two thirds of the stage only lost another 2.7s to finish the day 6.9s ahead.
“Had a bit of a half-spin at the top there, so that didn’t help,” said Evans. “But overall it’s been an OK day. Pretty happy overall.”
Neuville meanwhile is fired up for victory: “We’re going to go for it!” he said.
Katsuta is third overnight, 12.4s ahead of Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala who is contesting a one-off rally behind the wheel.
Jari Huttunen leads Sami Pajari in WRC2 overnight, capitalizing on a puncture for the latter on SS9.
