Toyota and Elfyn Evans have broken Hyundai’s and Ott Tänak’s stranglehold on Arctic Rally Finland after winning SS4, on which Kalle Rovanperä moved past Craig Breen into second place overall.
The Kaihuavaara stage was a high-speed affair that appeared to suit the characteristics of Toyota’s Yaris WRC. That theory was backed up by Breen’s stage-end comments.
“Honestly I thought I did a good stage,” he said, losing four seconds to Rovanperä to trail by 1.2 seconds.
“I drove I won’t say on my limit but honestly not so much more than I can do.”
Rovanperä however confessed he was unhappy with the balance of his Yaris WRC on SS3 and, with no service until after SS5, the 20-year-old Finn continued to be unhappy on SS4.
When it was put to him that his time, 1.2s slower than Evans, was a great one, Rovanperä replied “No it’s not”, unaware that he had passed Breen for second spot.
“At this point I don’t have the feeling with the car and it’s really not doing what I not. In many fast places I just lose the car in the line but I tried my best.”
Rally leader Tänak survived a hairy moment when his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC pinballed between snowbanks. He was just eighth quickest, dropping 6.1s to Rovanperä – who he now leads by 21.2s.
“I can’t activate the wipers so I couldn’t see anything so for sure it was good to get out,” said Tänak of his scare.
“We lacked a lot the top speed so it’s tricky.”
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
Neuville lost 4.5s to stage winner Evans in the fight for fourth and fifth, meaning Evans has closed the gap – which had ballooned into double figures on Saturday’s opener – back down to 8s.
“It was OK,” said Evans. “For sure some places could have been better.
“Some places I can carry a bit more speed I was a bit careful on the notes in a few places.”
Sébastien Ogier said he was “on the limit” as he continued his attempts to climb up the leaderboard. The Toyota star managed to wrestle 3.1s from Oliver Solberg directly ahead of him to lie 3.7s in arrears, and did move up to eighth as Teemu Suninen slid from sixth to ninth.
Suninen lamented the flat-out nature of the stage, which he felt he lost time on; his Ford Fiesta WRC unable to match the Hyundais and Toyotas.
“We are missing corners,” he said.
“Like sixth gear long uphill I am flat out you can’t make big differences. There is no corners to make differences.”
Solberg wasn’t happy with his performance either though, saying: “It was a terrible drive, terrible.
“I couldn’t find the confidence on the very, very fast. It’s such commitment and my pacenotes were too cautious.”
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
The gaps between sixth-placed Takamoto Katsuta and ninth-placed Suninen are incredibly slim, with just 7.5s splitting the quartet.
Katsuta dropped 3.3s to Ogier, feeling he “hesitated” too much in some sections “so next run I even more push and try and make much faster”.
Gus Greensmith in 10th spot lost just 0.9s on SS4 to Pierre-Louis Loubet, who remains out of contention following a puncture on Friday evening.
The Briton had hinted that Kaihuavaara could be one of his top-five favorite stages based on the recce, and it seemed the test lived up to Greensmith’s hype.
“That’s up there with one of the very best stages I’ve ever driven,” he said.
“That’s something pretty special to drive one of these cars in there. I’m feeling pretty lucky.”
Photo: McKlein Image Database
While Ott Tänak’s 100% stage-winning record out front has been broken, Esapekka Lappi’s domination of WRC2 continued with yet another scratch time on SS4.
The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 defeated Andreas Mikkelsen’s Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo by 3.5s to open up a 22s lead.
“Rallying doesn’t really get any better than this,” Lappi enthused. “Maybe with the WRC it would be more enjoyable but honestly, I just love this. I can’t complain.”
Nikolay Gryazin is 29s shy of the lead, 51.7s ahead of Eyvind Brynildsen, who overhauled M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux for fourth.
Emil Lindholm has retired from the lead of WRC3, handing the advantage to Teemu Asunmaa and bringing the stage to a halt as his Fabia Rally2 evo blocked the road.
SS4 times
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) 9m06.6s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +1.2s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +1.9s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +4.5s
5 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai) +4.9s
6 Oliver Solberg/Seb Marshall (Hyundai) +5s
Leading positions after SS4
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 54m57.9s
2 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) +21.2s
3 Breen/Nagle (Hyundai) +22.4s
4 Neuville/Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +29.2s
5 Evans/Martin (Toyota) +37.2s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +46.6s
7 Solberg/Marshall (Hyundai) +49.4s
8 Ogier/Ingrassia (Toyota) +53.1s
9 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (M-Sport Ford) +54.1s
10 Gus Greensmith/Elliott Edmondson (M-Sport Ford) +1m34.6s
