Kalle Rovanperä now holds an imposing 21.9-second lead of Secto Rally Finland over Sébastien Ogier as team-mate Elfyn Evans fell from second to eighth with a transmission issue.
The three leading Toyotas started Saturday split by just 8.6 seconds, with Rovanperä leading Evans by 8.0s.
The gaps stretched on the opening Västilä as Rovanperä beat Evans who, in turn, beat Ogier. But Päijälä changed everything as Evans spun at a square-left junction as something on his Yaris had let go.
It turned out to be a transmission issue, and although Evans was able to complete the stage he leaked over a minute and dropped to fifth – behind Adrien Fourmaux and crucially World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville.
Evans then lost almost five minutes on Ouninpohja to drop behind Sami Pajari and the two leading WRC2 contenders Oliver Solberg and Jari-Matti Latvala into eighth, now 6m19.2s off Rovanperä’s lead.
Evans’ Ouninpohja time loss was such that Rovanperä only just avoided catching him on the 20.5-mile stage.
More incredibly, Rovanperä and Ogier could only by split by a single tenth of a second on the legendary test.
“That’s quite tight then!” Rovanperä laughed. “I was not so clean at the beginning because it was my first time on his long Ouninpohja, but at the end a clean stage and nothing too crazy.”
Ogier added: “Unfortunately I was not really on the limit, many places I could have gone faster but that’s a bit a resume of my morning. I need to be better in the afternoon.”
Neuville is up on the provisional podium after his rival’s drama but was far from happy with an i20 N Rally1 he “can’t drive”.
He said at the end of Ouninpohja: “To be honest it’s scary, and I was afraid all the run long. I was happy when we were at the finish.”
Fourmaux however cut a very different tone at the end of one of the world’s most famous stages.
“That was so, so cool, so intense also,” he said. “There were so many crests and compressions and you have to play with it. It’s an art to be fair, it’s so impressive.”
Takamoto Katsuta and Esapekka Lappi returned after their retirements on Friday – Lappi stopping to change a puncture on Ouninpohja after an awkward landing caused a brief trip off the road.
“We jumped too much, just slid wide,” said a dejected Lappi.
“The car was pretty good on the previous one and now a complete disaster – no grip at all suddenly. Very difficult.”
Grégoire Munster meanwhile crashed out of seventh place on the day’s opening stage.
Solberg leads WRC2 by 18.0s but lost 4.3s to Latvala after having “two massive moments”. Latvala meanwhile was pumped up.
“We didn’t get to do this stage in 2017, so we had unfinished business,” he said. “That’s why we had to push on this stage.”
