Tänak in the fight with Ostberg in Finland

Ott Tänak (Toyota) retains the head of Rally of Finland at the end of the first pass of the four special stages of the first stage, but the Estonian is only one second ahead of Mads Ostberg (Citroën) despite his two scratches signed in SS2 and SS5. The Norwegian briefly took control of the race before ceding first position to the Estonian on the last course of Äänekoski.

Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota), notamment auteur du meilleur temps dans l’ES3, complète le podium provisoire avec quatre secondes d’avance sur Hayden Paddon, le plus rapide des pilotes Hyundai.

The Korean manufacturer's mechanics are keeping the assistance busy, particularly due to the exits of Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville. The Norwegian went into a half-roll on SS4 and lost around 3 minutes in the incident, while the Belgian spun on the last course of the morning. The Championship leader only lost half a minute, but his error was enough to push him back to 10th place, the latter having the added disadvantage of opening the road.

Picture of Mikkelsen's flight in the TC4, the current stone is all options in the general #RallyFinland #WRC by @eWRCresults pic.twitter.com/Dth2jWrepP

— Kevin Munoz (@Kevin_MRacing) July 27, 2018

Teemu Suninen complète le Top 5 en étant le premier pilote M-Sport. Le pilote local précède ses coéquipier Elfyn Evans et Sébastien Ogier. Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) took advantage of Thierry Neuville's error to move up to 8th place after stalling on the first course of the day. The Finn is ahead Craig Breen (Citroën) who lost around 50 seconds due to a puncture in the same special stage.

The young Kalle Rovanperä (Skoda) aged 17 impresses by dominating the peloton WRC 2. The Finn has more than 15 seconds ahead of Ole Christian Veiby (Skoda), while Pierre-Louis Loubet (Hyundai) completes the top three in the category for a tenth ahead of Jari Huttunen (Hyundai) . Stéphane Lefebvre (Citroën C3 R5) retired at the start of the day with mechanical problems.

The second passage of the first stage of the Rally Finland will be contested from 13:24 p.m.