WRC Finland: Rovanpera shines in changing weather as trouble at Tanak

A thin rally emerged from an intense multi-causing battle with the leadership of Finland on Friday after Toyota’s Kalle Rowanpera struggled with difficult variable situations.

The two -time world rally championship champion was the question mark to struggle on gravel this year, and despite not being extremely comfortable with its “flat out” approach, it was enough to end on Friday. Thierry neurville,

Rowanpera monitored Stage 2 (Sarika 1,15.78 km) and Stage 4 (Myhinpä 1, 14.47 km) in a two -fastest bar in a dawn loop, which was held extensively in dry conditions with the top five partitions of 4.9.

Through the steps providing difficult conditions for the crew, there was a rain of rain for another pass. Famous for his speed in such scenarios, Rowanpera won stage intake in impressive fashion, although Finn labeled the run as “scary”, while admitting that he was “All in the Place”.

After this, Rowanpera carried forward his lead after sharing the fastest time on stage eight with Hyundai. Adrian FormoxRowanpera dropped 1.9S in the last two phases of the day, but held under his leadership.

“It is not easy by any way, not really in my comfort field, but I am just cooking quite hard,” said Rowanpera.

World champion Nuvilla enjoyed one of his strength in Finland, despite not enjoying high -speed stages, he felt that the droughts were very sharp.

“Driving in the afternoon was slightly more important than going out flat, and that’s what I enjoyed more,” said Neurville. “I would say it was a good afternoon, but the Kalale is still clearly very fast but we are not far away.”

The Hyundai team fellow formox found himself a victim of victory throughout the day. The French had an edge over a neurville in drought, but in wet conditions where the level of grip was changing all the time, the roles were reversed. The Formox was the closest rival of the Rowanpera in the Midde Service, but in the end of Friday he fell under the leadership of the third, 7.7S.

Formox was locked in a fight with Toyota Takmoto katsususa Afternoon. Katsuta claimed his 50th career WRC stage win in stage six, which ranked Japanese from the Rowanpera from 3.3S, in second place. However, the moment of a big side in the next Test gave him the price of 2.4S, the 0.4S of the day before the fourth of the day and before away from 8.1s from the lead.

Toyota Sami Pajari Distributed its strongest performance of the season to date to claim a two -phase victory in the morning. Finned firmly in the fight on the Fin front, served 15.7 back.

Sebastian Ogier declared its Friday “decent”, which is in seventh place, which is a hindrance to some of the worst situations. The eight-time world champion title rivals and 8.4s ahead of Toyota Team-Mate were ahead. Elephin EvansWhich was disappointed with the weather in the seventh (+26s).

Rally 1 Field was completed by Martins Sesk (M-Sport-Ford), Josh McRlenn (M-Sport-Ford), Championship Leader Oat Tanak And Gregor Munter (M-Sport-Ford).

Tanak, already deprived of opening the road, was lucky that when he was closed and slipped into a tree on seven from the road, its i20 N emerged from the effect. The car damaged its cooling system, but was able to return to the service of 1M07.2s in the outstanding arrears, only 16.1s at the end of the morning loop.

“The effect was quite strong and we damaged the cooling system and we lost cooling fans and some parts, so it was a little difficult to loop,” Tanak said. “We had to keep cooling the engine but somehow we succeeded.”

This was also a challenging return for the WRC2 for the leader leader. Oliver solberg After a lump sum victory in a rally 1 car in Estonia. The Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 proved to be difficult to read for 2 cars, resulting in a missed junction that had a cost of 10 seconds of Solberg and dropped it from third to seventh position in class.

Solberg’s day deteriorated when his car collided with a rock that was dragged on the road, and a trench found, forcing him to retire.

Solberg read in a social media post: “Unfortunately our Friday has ended on SS7. A rock in the line kicked us and we went into the ditch. We could not do a lot about that. Big Shem (was) was trying to fight and feel but it is life.”

Rope Korhon of Finland ended on Friday with a 3.8S lead by Robert Veeravs, winner of Rali Estonia WRC 2. WRC Experienced and Toyota Team Principal Zari-lat Before the rain hit, he fell to the fourth place.