World rally champion Kalle Rovanpera snatched the Rally Finland lead from Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans at the end of an eventful Friday morning that included a crash for Ott Tanak.
Rovanpera headed to midday service with a 0.2s margin over Evans, who had impressed in difficult wet conditions in his bid for a first win of 2024.
Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier briefly held the rally lead after stage two, but returned to service 3.0s adrift in third.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi led Hyundai’s charge in fourth [+9.7s] ahead of championship leader Thierry Neuville [+14.1s], with M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux sixth [+31.3s] and team-mate Gregoire Munster in seventh [+1m08.3s].
Overnight rain continued into the morning, resulting in slippery conditions for the crews. The weather favoured those at the top of the road order, although the wet gravel proved particularly treacherous.
Starting second on the road, Evans managed to tame the conditions in stage two [Laukaa, 17.96km] to take the stage win by 0.4s from Ogier despite admitting it was “difficult to judge the grip”.
But it was Ogier who took the rally lead by one second from fellow part-time entrant Rovanpera, who was third fastest.
“It’s really slippy and quite a lot of mud from the cuts, today it is quite good to be in front,” said defending WRC champion Rovanpera.
Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Team-mate Takamoto Katsuta made it a Toyota 1-2-3-4 on the timesheets despite being clearly frustrated with his driving, which he described as “pretty shit”.
The fifth Toyota fared even worse as Rally1 debutant Sami Pajari suffered a wild spin before understeering into a ditch which damaged the rear wing and rear of the car, but he was able to reach the finish after dropping 17.8s.
“Extremely tricky,” remarked Pajari. “I don’t know where I am. We can keep going, it’s fine.”
Overnight leader Neuville led Hyundai’s charge, albeit four seconds adrift after a run he labelled a “disaster”. His effort was still 0.6s faster than team-mate Lappi, while Tanak was 0.9s further back ahead of a cautious Fourmaux.
The Frenchman’s team-mate Munster was the last of the Rally1 runners, after losing time to a stall.
The all-new stage three [Saarikas 15.93km] provided a potentially pivotal moment in the championship when Tanak was involved in a scary high-speed crash that red-flagged the test for 19 minutes.
The three-time Rally Finland winner lost control of his i20…
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