By RaceScene Publisher on Saturday, 06 August 2022
Category: The Checkered Flag

Tänak extands Rally Finland lead on Saturday morning

Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Ott Tänak is still holding on to the Secto Rally Finland lead after the Saturday morning loop of four stages nearby the Jämsä region. Some changes have happened on the leaderboard since yesterday when the drivers were greeted with wet and challenging conditions but Tänak has still maintained the lead and he is holding off the three charging Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers behind.

Tänak won the all-new Vekkula stage that rounded-up the morning loop and he arrived to the mid-day service with a 9.5 seconds lead over Esapekka Lappi meanwhile Lappi´s fellow countryman and current championship leader Kalle Rovanperä has moved further up the order and sits in third now with 3.4 seconds behind Lappi. Rovanperä passed his teammate Elfyn Evans on SS12 and later had a high-speed moment when his Toyota skittered off the road, Evans sits now in fourth with 5 seconds after Rovanperä.

Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville has moved up to fifth place with a minute behind Evans after passing Takamoto Katsuta who is currently in sixth place, the two drivers gained a position when the M-Sport´s Craig Breen was forced to retire from the rally after hitting a cliff that teared apart the right rear-end on SS12.

Breen off SS12 Rapsula. Video by: @SalminenMarko #WRC #WRCLive #rallyfinland pic.twitter.com/KCUdYZJcTh

— Aleks Lesk (@alekslesk) August 6, 2022

Pierre-Louis Loubet is now the leading M-Sport driver and is currently in seventh place with teammate Gus Greensmith in eight, rounding up the top ten after the morning are the two local WRC2 drivers of Teemu Suninen and Emil Lindholm. Rally1 debutant Jari Huttunen has moved up to 16th overall and the unluck continues still today but this time with power steering issues and Adrien Fourmaux is down in 27th.

Top 10 after SS14:

Pos.NumberDriver / Co-driverCountryTeamModelClassTime
1.#8Ott Tänak / Martin JärveojaEstoniaHyundai Shell Mobis WRTHyundai i20 N Rally1Rally11:27:13.8
2#4Esapekka Lappi / Janne FermFinlandToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally11:27:23.3
3.#69Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne HalttunenFinlandToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally11:27:26.7
4.#33Elfyn Evans / Scott MaritnUKToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally11:27:31.7
5.#11Thierry Neuville / Martijn WydaegheBelgiumHyundai Shell Mobis WRTHyundai i20 N Rally1Rally11:28:42.3
6.#18Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron JohnstonJapan / UKToyota Gazoo Racing NG WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally11:28:47.5
7.#7Pierre-Louis Loubet / Vincent LandaisFranceM-Sport Ford WRTFord Puma Rally1Rally11:29:36.0
8.#44Gus Greensmith / Jonas AnderssonUK / SwedenM-Sport Ford WRTFord Puma Rally1Rally11:29:43.4
9.#21Teemu Suninen / Mikko MarkkulaFinlandHyundai Motorsport NHyundai i20 N Rally2WRC21:32:48.1
10.#20Emil Lindholm / Reeta HämäläinenFinlandToksport WRTSkoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC21:32:53.8
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