End of day shortened, Lappi leader but closely followed by Tänak

Ce Rally of Sardinia is more undecided than ever. After Ott Tänak (Hyundai) during the first loop of the day, it is Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) who will return to the Service Park in the shoes of the leader. The Finn was greatly helped by the cancellation of SS 8 and 9 to maintain the lead in the Sardinian event.

With 3"7 to make up at the end of the lunch break, Esapekka Lappi was somewhat slow to get the machine going. After conceding 2 seconds to Ott Tänak during SS7, the first of the afternoon, the Toyota driver took second during SS6 where he showed himself to be authoritarian.

Author of scratch time, sound 2^e in this 2022 Sardinia Rally, Esapekka Lappi went for the performance of the day to take 7 from Ott Tänak but above all the lead in the general classification. The Finn actually took advantage of his counterpart's delay to get ahead of him by a short head (1 tenths) when returning to the Service Park.

General classification after Friday

Loubet still at the forefront

It is one of the nice surprises at the start of this Sardinia Rally. Not at all expected, or very little, among the leading men, Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport) defied all predictions to finish this Friday in a nice 3^e general's place.

Neck and neck with his teammate Craig Breen, the Corsican lost his property for a while after SS6, where he ranked 6^e, before recovering it a special stage later by taking a second from the Irishman. At the finish, and after two canceled stages, Pierre-Louis Loubet was in 3^e ranked only 15“1 behind Esapekka Lappi. Enough to glimpse a beautiful suite on the Italian island.

His compatriot and teammate Adrien fourmaux also had a good start to the Sardinia Rally. After appearing in the Top 5, the Northerner fell back to 6^e position but remains hopeful for the weekend since 14 barely separate him from Dani Sordo (Hyundai).

In the shoes of the opener all day, Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) was greatly helped by the cancellation of the last two special stages of the day so as not to lose any more time on the leading group. However, the Finn is already far away in the rankings since he is almost 1'15 behind Esapekka Lappi.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) is also very far from the fight for victory. Hindered by mechanical problems during the 1^e loop which cost him almost 2 minutes, the Belgian was correct in the 2^e but the damage was already done.

Rossel on the mat

In the fight for victory in WRC2 against Andreas Mikkelsen, Yohan Rossel was forced to end his day earlier than expected. Having made a mistake shortly after the start of SS7, the Gardois confirmed his retirement a few minutes later, leaving the way clear for the Norwegian since Teemu Suninen also threw in the towel. “We went off the road. We are both fine. I'm sorry for all of you! », he regretted on his Facebook account.

The resumption of the Sardinia Rally is scheduled for 7:46 a.m. this Saturday.

The complete general classification

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