Ott Tänak has moved into the lead of his home round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Estonia, but only by 0.3 seconds over his Hyundai team-mate Craig Breen.
Breen was second overnight after Thursday’s superspecial, 0.1s adrift of leader Kalle Rovanperä with Tänak equal eighth overall with Thierry Neuville.
But as the rally headed into the forests, Tänak returned to the stage-winning form he had executed devastatingly on the rally last year.
He beat Breen by 1.1s on the test to vault into the lead, while Rovanperä was third quickest, 2.2s slower and 1.3s back overall.
“Holy Jesus Christ almighty heaven above,” said a jubilant Breen. “It’s mind-blowing stuff, it’s really, really incredible, the car feels amazing,”
Rovanperä was less ecstatic: “For sure we have a lot to work on to get better. I made many mistakes where I lose easy seconds, so we will push harder.”
Neuville’s Hyundai was fourth fastest on SS2 but unable to keep tabs with the leading trio, setting a time 6.2s shy of Tänak’s effort.
Despite running marginally wide on a square-right and kissing a haybale with the rear right of his car, losing some bodywork, Gus Greensmith was a strong fifth fastest to occupy the same position overall in his M-Sport Ford. He’s just 0.3s behind Neuville and 6.5s away from the lead.
The two Toyotas of Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans were always likely to struggle on the first full morning in Estonia due to road cleaning, with Ogier first and Evans second onto the stages.
Evans got the better of Ogier by 0.8s on SS2, but due to a sluggish time on Thursday night’s superspecial, he still trails the seven-time world champion by 1.2s in the rally classification.
However, the two title challengers might be slightly surprised to find themselves as high as sixth and seventh overall respectively.
Evans described the stage as “very, very loose even to the point where it’s dragging the car on the straights”, and Ogier concurred that “the conditions are very slippery” as he had expected.
Toyota junior Takamoto Katsuta felt he was “maybe a little bit too nervous” about the grip on the stage and holds eighth, 0.4s ahead of Teemu Suninen who slid down from third overnight with an underwhelming performance on SS2.
2C Competition’s Pierre-Louis Loubet rounds out the top 10, 19.4s down on the lead.
SS2 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 6m32.1s
2 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Hyundai) +1.1s
3 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +2.2s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +6.2s
5 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +6.8s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +7.5s
Leading positions after SS2
1 Tänak/Järveoja 8m15.8s
2 Breen/Nagle +0.3s
3 Rovanperä/Halttunen +1.3s
4 Neuville/Wydaeghe +6.2s
5 Greensmith/Patterson +6.5s
6 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +8.6s
7 Evans/Martin +9.8s
8 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +10.0s
9 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (M-Sport Ford) +10.4s
10 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Florian Haut-Labourdette (Hyundai) +19.4s
RALLY ESTONIA FRIDAY STAGE GUIDE
Some of 2020's stages have been stitched together and pulled apart for today's route
