Elfyn Evans is doing his best to reclaim World Rally Championship points lost on Saturday, leading the Super Sunday standings at the halfway point of Secto Rally Finland’s final day.
Evans had been second to team-mate Kalle Rovanperä on Saturday but a broken front-right driveshaft, and then a complicated service that he left 16 minutes late, dumped him outside the points-paying positions.
With title rival Thierry Neuville profiting to climb to third, Evans needed a response on Sunday and, after two of the four stages, is second in the Sunday classification, 1.2s adrift of leader Rovanperä.
Neuville meanwhile is down in sixth, surprised to hear he’d lost four seconds to Evans on the first test.
“That’s a lot,” he said. “[It’s] not possible [to go faster] because I need to take too much risk if I want to go faster, and there’s no reason to take risk. At the moment I cannot go faster.”
Neuville did, however, beat Evans by 0.2s in the less conventional Laajavuori stage, despite running wide at the very start.
Thierry Neuville is in the box seat to strengthen his championship lead despite struggling with his car all rally
Sébastien Ogier is third on Super Sunday, judging his pace perfectly to be ahead of the Hyundais but 0.4s shy of his team-mate Evans.
Esapekka Lappi is doing his bit to help team-mate Neuville, but felt the cleaning effect on Laajavuori, based at a ski slope, cost him time. He’s fourth with Katsuta fifth and Adrien Fourmaux seventh despite a wild moment on Sahloinen-Moksi.
“In one cut the car touched the ground and it pushed me out, but it’s OK,” Fourmaux said. “Sometimes you need a bit of luck. I was definitely pushing.”
Sami Pajari is not a factor for Super Sunday points after going off into a grass field on SS17.
“The front got stuck in the corner, so I made the emergency [choice],” he explained. “Maybe I would have been able to take the corner if I was more confident, but I took the emergency.”
