Kalle Rovanperä has nudged his Rally Estonia lead to over five seconds by outpacing Craig Breen on the sixth stage.
Rovanperä and Breen are battling for what would be the first World Rally Championship victory for either of them. Ahead of the afternoon loop, Rovanperä enjoyed a narrow 4.8s advantage over Breen with a strong time on the stage just before service.
That form continued onto the repeat pass of the stages. Rovanperä’s stage advantage over Breen was slight, at 1.4s, but it was enough to extend his overall advantage to 6.2s.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
“That’s the plan, to continue the same way,” admitted Rovanperä. “It’s always tricky on the second pass with some rough places so you need to push but be clever.”
Thierry Neuville took a swipe at Sébastien Ogier’s third position overall, beating the championship leader by 1.5s on SS6 to trial by 5.3s.
All was not swell aboard the #11 Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC though, as first he and Martijn Wydaeghe worked on the car before the test and were then frustrated by poor visibility when on it.
“There was dust hanging in the stage and with the clouds coming the visibility was not good, we should get four minutes gap before the next stage,” said Neuville, pleading with the event organizer.
Elfyn Evans dropped 2.2s to Neuville to remain close but not too threatening behind the Hyundai overall. He is 8.8s in arrears in fifth.
Photo: Hyundai Motorsport
Pierre-Louis Loubet (pictured above) continued to play the tactical game and just bring his car to the stage end. He remains sixth overall, ahead of M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen.
Andreas Mikkelsen overtook Mads Østberg to assume the lead of the WRC2 class as Østberg’s front-right tire parted company with his Citroën’s rim.
Perhaps sensibly given the tirade that earned him a fine and a suspended points deduction in Italy, Østberg elected not to speak to the stage-end reporter.
SS6 times
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) 6m27.9s
2 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai) +1.4s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +3.1s
4 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +4.6s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +5.3s
6 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (M-Sport Ford) +10s
Leading positions after SS6
1 Rovanperä/Halttunen 41m05.8s
2 Breen/Nagle +6.2s
3 Ogier/Ingrassia +38.1s
4 Neuville/Wydaeghe +43.4s
5 Evans/Martin +52.2s
6 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Florian Haut-Labourdette (2C Competition Hyundai) +1m51.1s
7 Alexey Lukyanuk/Yaroslav Fedorov (Škoda) +2m13.4s
8 Suninen/Markkula +2m29.5s
9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Fløene (Škoda) +2m30s
10 Emil Lindholm/Reeta Hämäläinen (Škoda) +2m39.9s
