Esapekka Lappi overhauled Elfyn Evans to move into third place on SS7 of Rally Estonia.
The pair were separated by exactly one second heading into the second pass of Raanitsa but Lappi set the second fastest time (behind Ott Tänak), to outpace Evans by 3.7s. That Lappi 2.7s ahead heading into the final stage of the day.
Lappi’s pace came despite a small niggle with the upshift on his Hyundai i20 N, which he reckoned cost him “tenths here and there” under acceleration, adding: “But the car is working really nicely – it’s pure enjoyment all the time.”
Evans clearly wasn’t fully comfortable with his Toyota GR Yaris. “It’s a bit frustrating, to be honest,” he said. “Just not really hitting all the markers just at the moment, but otherwise quite OK.”
Thierry Neuville meanwhile was 0.1s faster than rally leader Kalle Rovanperä through the stage to leave his deficit to the Toyota driver almost unchanged at 2.2s.
The order among the rest of the Rally1 cars remains stable with Teemu Suninen fifth, Pierre-Louis Loubet sixth, Takamoto Katsuta seventh and Tänak mired outside the top 10 after his earlier penalty.
Loubet was an impressive third fastest time on th stage though, 3.4s quicker than Suninen and thus the gap between the pair to just under 15s. He extended his advantage over Katsuta to 12.4s.
