Former Rally Italy leader Teemu Suninen has slipped from second to fourth in one stage with an overshoot as compatriot Kalle Rovanperä ripped a wheel off his Toyota and retired.
Rovanperä began the 9.36 miles of Coiluna – Loelle in ninth place after an overshoot and then steering problems on Friday restricted his progress. Running second on the road, he managed the second quickest time on Saturday’s opening Monte Lerno stage.
But it all went awry on SS8 when the Finn ran a touch wide, clipping a tree with the rear-left corner of his Toyota Yaris WRC which sent the car into a 180-degrees spin. The rear of the car then slammed into another tree, ripping the rear-right wheel clean off and ensuring, if there was any doubt, that he would be going no further.
Hyundai’s Ott Tänak was first on the scene and confirmed the car was in a precarious place but it was possible to pass.
“Not so nice between these trees at that speed,” said Tänak, who moved up into seventh place past the 2C Competition-run Pierre-Louis Loubet.
Suninen meanwhile had dropped to 22.6 seconds behind rally leader Dani Sordo on Saturday’s first stage, with the squabbling Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville closing to within 10s of him.
But Suninen made their life easy on SS8, overshooting a junction and discovering his handbrake wasn’t working, therefore dropping him even more time. The M-Sport driver surrendered 10.8s to Toyota’s Ogier and is now 2.4s behind him in fourth, with Neuville sandwiched in third, 1.3s ahead of Suninen.
Rovanperä's crashed Toyota
“I tried to make a junction and use handbrake, tried to rotate the car and didn’t have handbrake so needed to reverse,” Suninen explained.
Ogier’s pace wasn’t as strong as it had been on SS7, and thus he lost 1.5s to Neuville behind him.
“It was a bit slippier than expected, yeah could’ve been a bit better but I try, keep pushing,” said Ogier.
Hyundai’s Neuville wasn’t chuffed either though, even if he is now just 1.3s shy of second place.
“I think with five it would have been better because I can’t go the speed they’re going but maybe I slowed too much where Rovanperä was,” Neuville rued.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who is now 12.4s back from Suninen’s fourth, looked set to win the stage until rally leader Sordo came through, eclipsing his benchmark by 1.8s. Sordo’s lead is now up to 36.5s as he outpaced his closest challenger Ogier by 5.5s.
Loubet was bewildered by his performance, admitting he “clipped the rear again” in reference to a moment he had on Friday.
He sits in eighth, now behind Tänak, after Rovanperä ‘s retirement, while M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith’s sits in sixth place and has a 23.6s cushion over reigning World Rally Champion Tänak behind.
Greensmith, like Neuville, opted to take two spare tires for Saturday morning’s loop of four stages and wasn’t entirely happy with the balance, but confessed his speed loss was down to his pacenotes as well as tires.
Takamoto Katsuta continued his education at the top level but is out of the frame for overall points following a crash on Friday. But running first on the road was useful learning.
“It’s a good experience opening the road for me. Now I know why the top guys are complaining in the past day,” he said, referencing Toyota team-mate Ogier’s distaste on Friday.
SS8 times
1 Sordo (Hyundai) 8m52.5s
2 Evans (Toyota) +1.8s
3 Neuville (Hyundai) +4.0s
4 Ogier (Toyota) +5.5s
5 Tänak (Hyundai) +11.4s
6 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +16.3s
Leading positions after SS8
1 Sordo (Hyundai) 1h34m25.3s
2 Ogier (Toyota) +36.5s
3 Neuville (Hyundai) +37.8s
4 Suninen (M-Sport Ford) +38.9s
5 Evans (Toyota) +51.2s
6 Greensmith (M-Sport Ford) +1m50.4s
7 Tänak (Hyundai) +2m14.0s
8 Loubet (2C Competition Hyundai) +2m19.1s
9 Solberg (Škoda) +4m18.4s
10 Tidemand (Škoda) +5m26.4s
