Takamoto Katsuta is keeping Teemu Suninen behind in the battle for third on Rally Finland, with Elfyn Evans now just one stage away rally victory.
The Sunday morning loop featured two passes of the Moksi – Sahloinen stage, sandwiching a single pass through Himos – Jämsä which will be repeated later today as the powerstage.
Evans claimed his eighth stage win of the weekend on the day’s opener, leading Hyundai’s Suninen by a second. Suninen reported that “the rear is going everywhere”, but he importantly still navigated his i20 N Rally1 through the forest faster than Katsuta by 1.9s.
That time gap all came in the final split of the stage, and reduced Katsuta’s hold over third place in the overall classification down to 4.5s.
But Katsuta responded on the next stage in the best way possible, going fastest of anyone by 1.3s. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was closest to his pace, while Suninen dropped 2.7s. He had saved a wild moment late on the stage, which could have sent him into the trees, but by going 2.7s slower than Katsuta the gap between them grew to 7.2s.
Suninen was quicker again on the loop’s final stage, but only by 0.9s and admitted “I couldn’t keep the speed up in the high-speed places”. It leaves him with a big job to do in the final 5.75 miles of the rally if he wants his first World Rally Championship podium since 2020 Rally Mexico.
After having Neuville take 2.9s out of his lead on the first pass of Himos – Jämsä, Evans replied by winning the rally’s penultimate stage by 4.5s over him. He now has a lead of 38.2s, and looks all but certain to take his second WRC win of 2023.
Jari-Matti Latvala is in fifth place in the third of the Toyotas, and Pierre-Louis Loubet is still in the rally but possibly will not make the finish. The M-Sport Ford driver had to take the first and third stages of the day in road mode, and hinted that he might not start the powerstage.
Oliver Solberg leads the Rally2 class in sixth place overall, ahead of WRC2 leader Sami Pajari.
