Lappi claimed three stage wins from the four afternoon tests that were plagued by snow flurries that made conditions incredibly challenging for crews. The performance helped Lappi overhaul Katsuta to open up a 3.2s rally lead after eight of 18 stages.
Katsuta ended the day as the lead Toyota after overnight leader Kalle Rovanpera crashed out on stage four after running wide into a snowbank, with Hyundai’s Ott Tanak retiring after also falling victim to the snowbanks.
WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg made the most of cleaner road conditions to end the day in an incredible third overall (+1m20.7s), driving a Toksport Skoda Fabia.
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux rounded out an impressive day in fourth, 5.6s behind Solberg, while Elfyn Evans was fifth (+1m50.0s). Championship leader Thierry Neuville headed to the end of day service with a fuel pressure problem in eighth, trailing Rally2 drivers Sami Pajari and Lauri Joona.
Heavy snow made conditions incredibly tricky for the crews as the afternoon loop began. Such was the significance of the snow fall, the stages fell into the hands of the slower Rally2 cars that were lower down the road order and faced a much cleaner road surface.
The top five fastest times posted on stage five, the second pass through #42 Brattby, belonged to Rally2 drivers.
Georg Linnamae emerged from the blizzard with a benchmark time to score a first stage win for the new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car.
The Estonian was 2.4s faster than WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg and class rivals Mikko Heikkila, Lauri Joona and Fabrizio Zaldivar.
Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Toksport WRT Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Lappi was the quickest Rally1 entrant with the sixth fastest as he closed to within 5.3s of rally leader Katsuta, who could only post the 11th quickest effort.
“Grip is nothing. Studs don’t work at all. As you can see, there is more than 10cm of snow in some sections. No chance to find the grip, just using the banks and lines. Sometimes you hope there is bank, it’s proper bobsleigh at times,” said Katsuta.
Fourmaux was 21st, Evans, who declared the test “undriveable” was 24th, while Neuville ended up 26th on the leaderboard.
The drama continued into stage six [Norrby 2, 12.36km] as Neuville struggled to fire up his i20 N before the stage start. He checked into the stage four minutes late, incurring a 40s penalty.
The Belgian did however receive the advantage of…
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