Esapekka Lappi leads Rally Italy Sardinia overnight after Thursday’s opening stage, heading M-Sport’s Ott Tänak by 0.2 seconds.
Olbia – Cabu Abbas kickstarted round six of the 2023 World Rally Championship, and for a super-special was fast and flowing with wide asphalt sections and a slippery gravel part in the middle.
Super-special stages usually belong to Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, but the #11 i20 was just third fastest on Sardinia’s opener, half a second down on the pace set by his team-mate Lappi who clearly enjoyed himself.
“This is fun,” said the Finn.
“You have enough space, it’s wide enough, you can play with the car. On the gravel you keep it sideways and full throttle as it’s so slippery so this is the only way to do it!”
The four leading cars were split by less than a second as Lappi, Tänak, Neuville and fourth placed Takamoto Katsuta were covered by just 0.9s.
World championship leader Kalle Rovanperä slotted into an early fifth place, 1.2s down on his compatriot, and just a single tenth ahead of his Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier.
Dani Sordo was another half a second back, 1.8s off the lead, with 0.2s in hand over Elfyn Evans.
Pierre-Louis Loubet propped up the Rally1 leaderboard in ninth overall, albeit just a single tenth down on Evans, as Oliver Solberg holds the final points-paying place as the overnight leader of WRC2.
