Imperial Tänak in Finland

Ott Tänak (Toyota) won the Rally from Finland. The Estonian continued to manage his half-minute lead over his closest pursuers and won the Ruuhimäki Power Stage ahead of Mads Ostberg (Citroën), Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota), Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Craig Breen (Citroen).

Mads Ostberg was too far away to hope to take over the first Yaris WRC regularly, but the Norwegian still resisted the attacks of Jari-Matti Latvala who failed less than 3 seconds behind the C3 WRC.

The false note at Toyota is due to Esapekka Lappi who rolled over in the first special of the day while he was in 4th place. Hayden Paddon was the first to benefit, but Hyundai will still have to wait before securing its first podium at the Rallye des 1000 Lacs.

Images of @EsapekkaLappi unfortunate crash on SS20 #nesterallyfinland #wrc #wrclive #rallyfinland pic.twitter.com/1MtnxYUmKC

— WRC (@OfficialWRC) July 29, 2018

Sébastien Ogier completes the Top 5. The five-time WRC champion benefited from team instructions, Teemu Suninen voluntarily taking a 20-second penalty to cede his position to the Frenchman. The French driver narrowly missed pocketing a bonus point in the Power Stage by setting the same time as Craig Breen. Elfyn Evans completes training M-Sport in 7th place ahead of the Irishman who is ahead of the Hyundais of Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen.

Thierry Neuville loses 6 points ahead of Sébastien Ogier in the Championship, but the Belgian retains the lead for another 21 points. Ott Tänak is 46 points behind. Among the Manufacturers, Hyundai Motorsport remains in control with 26 units ahead of M-Sport. Toyota follows at 27 points and Citroën at 75.

Eerik Pietarinen (Skoda) takes victory in WRC 2 by winning ahead of his compatriot Jari Huttunen (Hyundai) and Gus Greensmith (Ford). The Briton retained his place on the podium for less than two seconds ahead of Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda), solid leader of the category until he broke a shock absorber. Pierre-Louis Loubet completes the Top 5.

It was another Estonian who won in the JWRC with Ken Torn winning by around ten seconds ahead of Emil Bergkvist. Jean-Baptiste Franceschi completes the category podium.

Discover the analysis of the Rally of Finland carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2176 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.