Esapekka Lappi has moved ahead of both Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä and into the lead of Rally Sweden on a stage that was paused due to Craig Breen exiting the contest.
Tänak took his first stage win of the season on the opening Swedish test – but by a scant 0.4 seconds over de facto points leader Rovanperä. Solberg and Lappi were both within 1.9s of the lead too.
But 2019 world champion Tänak couldn’t quite sustain the pace in his Hyundai on SS2, admitting he was “struggling with the balance” of the i20 N Rally1.
Tänak therefore dropped from first to fourth as Lappi practically went the other way, vaulting up from fifth place to first after setting the pace in his Toyota.
“I’m really surprised because on the big road I was so slow,” said Lappi. “I braked so many times on the corners where I should’ve been flat on the big road but maybe the small road was better than the others.”
Lappi took a clear 2.5s stage win over team-mate Rovanperä who, despite being overhauled by Lappi, remains in second place with just a one second deficit to his fellow Finn.
Oliver Solberg has likewise kept hold of his third position despite being passed by Lappi as he jumped ahead of Tänak. However the Hyundai driver felt his pacenotes were “too optimistic” and commented on the intercom after the stage that “that was probably my worst stage ever”.
He’s 2.9s down on Lappi’s lead and one second up on Tänak.
Thierry Neuville, Gus Greensmith and Takamoto Katsuta all had their times compromised and will thus be handed a notional from the event organizer as the stage had been red flagged because of Breen’s accident once they had already started it.
Breen suffered a half-spin early on the stage after clipping and wiping out a snowbank – so much so that during the pause to the stage Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin had the forethought to add “Craig” to their pacenotes to warn them of that bend.
SWEDEN SS2 STOPPED AS BREEN STUCK ON SNOWBANK
Two trips into the snow for Breen ended his day
But Breen’s day was done much later on in the test when he carried too much speed through a narrow and bumpy section, clipping another snowbank which threw his Puma Rally1 Hybrid deep into the road-side snow. He had been seventh overall after the first stage.
Neuville confessed to being “very lucky” with the red flag as he had some sort of “battery pack” issue with his Hyundai. He had also brushed the same snowbank that Breen had just obliterated when the stage was still live.
Evans was the first car to set a representative time after the disruption but “felt really quite bad in there”, aware he has “to try and improve quickly”. The Toyota driver was 3.4s behind team-mate Rovanperä and surprised to be as close to him as that.
The overall results after SS2 are provisional, subject to the notional time for Neuville, Greensmith and Katsuta being confirmed.
SS2 times
1 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota) 12m39.6s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +2.5s
3 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Hyundai) +3.8s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +5.7s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +5.9s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +12.6s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +17.9s
8 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +22.8s
9 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (M-Sport Ford) +26.8s
10 Ole Christian Veiby/Stig Rune Skjaermoen (Volkswagen) +38.7s
Leading positions after SS2
1 Lappi/Ferm (Toyota) 21m15.6s
2 Rovanperä/Halttunen (Toyota) +1.0s
3 Solberg/Edmondson (Hyundai) +2.9s
4 Tänak/Järveoja (Hyundai) +3.8s
5 Evans/Martin (Toyota) +7.7s
6 Neuville/Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +12.5s
7 Katsuta/Johnston (Toyota) +24.7s
8 Greensmith/Andersson (M-Sport Ford) +42.1s
9 Fourmaux/Coria (M-Sport Ford) +48.0s
10 Veiby/Skjaermoen (Volkswagen) +59.0s
