Kalle Rovanpera tamed challenging wet conditions to lead a Toyota 1-2-3 at Rally Finland as the Finn made a strong start to his bid for a maiden World Rally Championship home win.
The reigning world champion, running a part-time programme, head title contender and team-mate Elfyn Evans by 8.3s after nine stages.
Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier was third [+9.5s] as championship leader Thierry Neuville was the sole remaining Hyundai in fourth [+26.2s].
M-Sport-Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux [+48.6s], Toyota debutant Sami Pajari [+1m28.9s] and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rounded out the top seven [+1m49.4s.].
Seven Rally1 cars completed the day after Hyundai duo Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi retired along with Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who damaged his right rear suspension after hitting a tree in stage five in the morning.
Hyundai’s difficult start to the rally worsened as Friday afternoon began just moments after the team confirmed that Tanak had retired from the event completely following a high-speed crash in stage three. Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja were declared “well” by the team, but the latter will spend the night in hospital as a precaution.
Lappi, who led Hyundai’s charge in Tanak’s absence in fourth position, was caught out by a section of deep ruts in stage six [Laukaa 17.96km], which bounced his i20 N into a tree ripping the right rear wheel from the car.
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
“The ruts were really deep, but I was not expecting I would bounce off from these ruts as they were so deep, I didn’t think it would be possible. I arrived at this place much slower than the first pass. I jumped out of the ruts and then I couldn’t do anything as it was so close to the trees,” said Lappi who was confident he would rejoin the rally on Saturday.
Despite the tricky wet and rutted roads, it was Rovanpera who was able to tame the conditions to win the stage in the drizzle to extend his rally lead, to 4.7s.
However, the Finn’s nearest rival on the stage was rookie Pajari, now able to show his pace in a fully repaired GR Yaris after his stage two excursion.
“After the morning loop, it’s [like] another day completely. The conditions are now much more stable, but I had a really clean run. It was really nice to drive,” said Pajari, who climbed to sixth overall behind Neuville and the improving…
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