Gus Greensmith has become the second M-Sport driver to retire from Rally Estonia in as many stages as a technical problem ruled him out of a stage that was won by both Kalle Rovanperä and Ott Tänak.
The M-Sport driver had just been promoted to eighth following the retirement of his team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet on Sunday’s opener. Loubet clipped a hidden rock and damaged his suspension.
Greensmith’s issue however wasn’t self-induced. Right from the start of the stage he appeared to be in trouble, getting away slower than expected and nervously glancing at his dashboard as he completed the stage at a heavily reduced pace.
Asked at stage-end what was wrong, Greensmith said: “Not exactly sure, but something with the transmission I think.”
Was he able to fix it?
“I don’t think so.”
Like Loubet, Greensmith was forced to retire after the stage, bringing his event to an early end.
Out front Rovanperä extended his rally lead by nine seconds to lead Elfyn Evans by 38.8s with four stages to go – that gap bolstered by a high-speed spin for Evans.
“I came in a bit hot but the rear then snapped quite violently on the braking,” Evans said.
“It was better to let it spin to be honest, there was plenty of room to turn but not the smartest.”
Tänak’s joint fastest time with Rovanperä not only cemented his third place but ensured he maintained his record of winning at least one stage of his home round of the WRC each year.
Oliver Solberg has been on the brink of a maiden World Rally Championship stage win, but Kanepi 1 on Rally Estonia 2022 wasn’t where he’d claim it.
The Hyundai driver’s early split times were promising, but a big spin into a field in the same section as Evans cost him dearly – although he still beat the driver ahead of him in the running order, Craig Breen, who is saving rubber for the points-paying powerstage.
Adrien Fourmaux almost followed Solberg in, running marginally off the road at the same tricky corner. The M-Sport driver wasn’t lured into a small spin, but did lose significant ground to fifth placed Takamoto Katsuta ahead of him.
Katsuta was on it on SS20, beating Fourmaux by 5.2s to establish a double-figured advantage overall once more at 12.9s.
“Yeah, it’s good,” commented the Toyota Next Generation driver.
“I feel quite comfortable. Still I have the room for more pushing, I can go faster on the next run so I’m quite confident.”
