Rovanperä and Toyota lead Rally Finland, Tänak damaged and already out of the race

• Two tenths: this is the tiny gap that separates the leader Kalle Rovanperä from his closest pursuer, Elfyn Evans, at the end of the first loop this Friday morning. The two pilots Toyota shared the four stages of the morning despite changing and unpredictable weather conditions.
• Not far from its base WRC in Jyväskylä, the Japanese team is at ease despite the rain. Proof of this is the third place occupied by another Yaris, that of Sébastien Ogier. The Frenchman, who finds the Rally from Finland three years after his last participation, remains in contact with the leading duo with only three seconds behind Kalle Rovanperä. Toyota could even have monopolized the first four places with Takamoto Katsuta, but the Japanese made a mistake in SS5 and broke his right-rear suspension, losing more than a minute and thirty seconds at the end of the morning.

Taka 😩

The Toyota driver hits a tree on SS5 😔#WRC | #SectoRallyFinland 🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/mua2TxvgXH

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) August 2, 2024

• The day ended short for Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja. The Estonian violently left the track in the first kilometers of SS3: in a fast left turn, the 2019 world champion arrived with too much speed and oversteered right towards a tree outside the corner, before ending up on the roof. An impressive accident which caused a red flag to be sent to the scene. “Ott is fine, but Martin is being taken to hospital for further checks”, specified Hyundai in a short press release. After hitting a deer in Poland and an inflatable arch in Latvia, Ott Tänak has one more misadventure in the WRC…

• Thanks to the rain, Thierry Neuville limited the damage despite his position as opener. Fifth with fourteen seconds behind the leader, the Belgian may however have one regret: that of having gone straight into a tight bend during the SS. The Hyundai driver lost more than ten seconds in this mishap. The other Hyundai still in the running, that of local Esapekka Lappi, is in 4th place, less than ten seconds behind his compatriot Kalle Rovanperä.
• A difficult start for Sami Pajari in Rally1. The young rookie, who is taking part in his first premier class rally on home soil, made an error in SS2, damaging his Toyota on the first special stage of the day. Without a rear wing on this first loop, the Finn was unable to shine and is in 8th place among the Rally1s, more than a minute behind the leading trio.
• The two Fords M-Sport are behind on the wet roads of Finland. Adrien fourmaux, frustrated by poor settings on his Puma, is already more than thirty seconds behind the leaders, while Grégoire Munster, not very comfortable this Friday, is already more than a minute behind Kalle Rovanperä.
• In WRC2, it is Oliver Solberg who leads the way ahead of Lauri Joona and Nikolay Gryazin, but the ranking remains very provisional. Due to a second red flag in SS3 for a “medical incident not related to the rally”, several Rally2 drivers were unable to set a time and were accredited with a fixed time. This could change this afternoon, since the marshals should reassess this time based on the times during the second passage planned in SS7.

Rally Finland
General ranking after ES5

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