Ott Tänak has dropped over 20 seconds behind Oliver Solberg at Rally Estonia after a mistake on Saturday’s opening stage.
The tension was high ahead of Saturday’s epic nine-stage day, as with equal road position to his direct rivals it would become clear how capable Solberg would be in the fight for victory.
However Tänak weakened his own chances with a mistake through a bale chicane – going too deep and half-spinning the car; then stalling for good measure.
As a result, Tänak lost 6.4s to trail the lead by 18.8s, and fell behind Neuville by 2.5s too – but revealed his mistake in the chicane was not a one-off.
“I missed another junction before that as well, so two times,” Täank said. “So braking, braking all good and then I just lose it. I can’t comment.”
Solberg set the fastest time by 2.1s.
“I tried some new things on the car and the rear end is really nice, but now I have a lot of understeer,” Solberg said. “So I need to work on that – but feeling is good. First time doing these stage isn’t easy but it’s OK, I’m very happy.”
On the very next stage, Solberg again set the pace to establish a 21.2s lead out front, with Tänak moving back ahead of Neuville into second by 0.7s.
Further back, Adrien Fourmaux nudged a slender 0.7s clear of Takamoto Katsuta in the battle for fifth.
