Tänak fragile leader of Rally Finland, Lappi in ambush

It is a battle which for the moment delivers all its promises on the Rally from Finland. Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi were uncompromising this Friday, signing 8 scratches out of the 9 possible for the day. Only Takamoto Katsuta was able to win the small super-special (SS6) in the streets of his town, Jyväskylä, at the start of the afternoon. The two drivers left only crumbs for the other competitors. Exemplary of consistency, they took the first two places on all but two special stages. At the end of this intense day (with 9 special stages and 125 kilometers covered), there is only a 3″8 gap between the Toyota and Hyundai !

That's a hat-trick of three straight stage wins from @EsapekkaLappi to finish off Friday in Finland, and put him only 3.8s from the lead tonight! 🥇🙌

Great work from @ElfynEvans and @KalleRovanpera too to sit 3rd and 4th 👏 #ToyotaGAZOORacing #GRYaris #WRC #RallyFinland 🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/QMRAguehz0

- TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT (@TGR_WRC) August 5

Behind, Elfyn Evans is already relegated to 19″3 behind Ott Tänak. If victory cannot yet be ruled out, it is difficult to imagine any driver other than those of the leading duo winning, barring an accident. If the battle is fierce between the leaders, it is also fierce for 3rd place. Kalle Rovanperä managed his opening position well and stayed in contact with Evans, who was only 1″7 ahead of the Finn. The championship leader almost went off the track at the start of the last special, ultimately without consequences.

Huttunen betrayed by his mechanics at Rally Finland

In the middle of the peloton, the positions have already frozen. Only 5th place was disputed between Craig Breen and Takamoto Katsuta. Coming back to less than a second of the Irishman, the Toyota driver finally conceded a few seconds in the last two special stages of the day. The Japanese is 3 seconds behind Breen, who caught up well after contact with a rock during SS7.

Thierry Neuville is currently experiencing a rather lonely Rally Finland, in 7th place. If the Belgian started to gain a little rhythm at the end of the day, he is already relegated to more than 50 seconds behind his teammate Ott Tänak in the general. On the French side, no accident to deplore this time, even if Adrien fourmaux and Pierre-Louis Loubet remained very cautious Friday afternoon.

Big disappointment on the other hand for Jari Huttunen. The Finn, who is racing his first rally in WRC Rally1 at home suffered an oil pressure problem. The young driver coached by Marcus Grönholm lost almost 5 minutes in the process and fell out of the top 10.

The general classification after SS10:

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