Dani Sordo has taken 7.1 seconds out of Teemu Suninen’s Rally Italy lead as Suninen’s M-Sport team-mate Esapekka Lappi has retired from second place as his Fiesta WRC stopped with steam pouring from the engine.
Suninen and Lappi had stunned the pack on SS1 by taking an early 1-2 at the top of the leaderboard, but M-Sport’s joy has been thwarted. Lappi’s split times on Erula-Tula were looking consistent with the rest of the pack but suddenly his M-Sport Fiesta slowed and was forced to pull over on the stage with a water temperature alarm lighting up his dashboard.
However, rally leader Suninen was still in good form, going second quickest despite ceding time to an inspired Sordo who more than halved the Finn’s lead. Suninen now leads the rally by 5.4s heading into the repeat loop of Tempo Pausania and Erula-Tula.
“It’s good to be like that but it’s still a long way to go,” Suninen said, more measured than his utter joy at the end of the opening stage.
Sordo added: “I feel really good with the car, everything is fine. I think I can push a little bit more, but I don’t know where the limit is with the five tires. I only have five tires.”
Ott Tänak’s early Rally Italy struggles have continued too. Tänak was 27.9 seconds slower than stage winner Suninen on the opening test and was even beaten by both Oliver Solberg and Adrien Fourmaux in Rally2 cars.
His Hyundai was similarly slow on SS2, but the exact nature of the problem is unknown as Tänak elected not to speak to the stage-end reporters. But the damage is clear, as he’s already 47.5s adrift of the lead in ninth overall.
Fellow title challengers Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans had begun SS2 tied overall despite Ogier appearing quicker in several splits, but the six-time world champion got his break on Erula-Tula as he went 4.2s quicker than his championship leading team-mate.
“This one is a little bit more natural,” he remarked with Evans admitting it was “more slippery in places than we expected” and he was “struggling to rotate the car” as the first man into the stage.
Ogier is now up to third following Lappi’s exit, 4.2s ahead of Evans with Thierry Neuville jumping up to fifth despite feeling his decision to take two spare tires was backfiring.
“We played it safe, but we can’t push like I should be able to push,” he lamented.
Neuville’s fifth is at the expense of Toyota’s third car Kalle Rovanperä. Rovanperä. who crashed after the finish on shakedown, made another mistake on SS2 as he overcooked his entry into a left hander and drifted off the road next to a tree. The 20-year-old lost more time trying to restart his Yaris WRC and is now 10.9s behind Neuville in sixth overall.
Takamoto Katsuta stalled twice to drop nearly 20s behind Gus Greensmith after edging him by 0.2s on the previous test. He’s 5.2s behind World Rally Champion Tänak.
Pierre-Louis Loubet is eighth overall in his 2C Competition Hyundai, 6.8s behind Greensmith and 5.6s ahead of Tänak.
Ole Christian Veiby has assumed the lead of WRC2 from Adrien Fourmaux, setting a time 20.4s faster than second-fastest Pontus Tidemand on SS2.
Tidemand overshot a junction while Fourmaux almost rolled and then picked up a rear-right puncture, meaning he trails Hyundai’s Veiby by 8.8s with Tidemand another 6.2s back.
Mads Østberg is three minutes down in his Citroën with a broken front driveshaft restricting him to just rear-wheel-drive.
SS2 times
1 Sordo (Hyundai) 16m50.0s
2 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +7.1s
3 Ogier (Toyota) +8.1s
4 Neuville (Hyundai) +10.1s
5 Evans (Toyota) +12.3s
6 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +13.9s
Leading positions after SS2
1 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) 26m56.9s
2 Sordo (Hyundai) +5.4s
3 Ogier (Toyota) +14.4s
4 Evans (Toyota) +18.6s
5 Neuville (Hyundai) +21.3s
6 Rovanperä (Toyota) +32.2s
7 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +35.1s
8 Loubet (2C Competition Hyundai) +41.9s
9 Tänak (Hyundai) +47.5s
10 Katsuta (Toyota) +52.7s
