WRC Finland, Red Bull Ring DTM and F3

WRC - Finland: With quite a lot of walking wounded now and a fair few retirements, there aren't many close battles apart from the lead pair - though the all-Hyundai fight for fifth between Neuville and Sordo is covered by just 2.9s, and that's the sort of margin a superspecial could alter.

Beyond that, the other thing to watch is the continued damage limitation efforts of Tanak and Evans in their broken cars. Though Evans has slumped to 20th, Tanak still clings to 10th.

WRC - Finland: Just one stage left to go today, and let's be blunt - it is not the finest representation of the glory of Rally Finland.

This is an event all about high speeds and flying over jumps, and there's not much opportunity to do that on Harju, which is actually mostly asphalt. There's a roundabout, some temporary chicanes, some fences, and a quick nip into a parkland section that at least gives the drivers a hint of tree and gravel.

But in a situation where we've got our leaders separated by just 3.1s, there's enough opportunity for a shake-up even on a little stage like this.

At least tonight's version will be dry, the early runners were skating around on a very wet set of roads last night and that did generate some thrills.

It'll be frontrunners in first this time too, whereas last night the midfielders got to warm up the crowds before the World Rally Cars appeared.

WRC - Finland: Lappi, at his home rally, is being suitably Finnish in both his driving and his interviews. I think he is happy with his problem-free day but it's hard to tell.

"Today was problem-free, which is good. The plan was always to push today and then defend tomorrow."

WRC - Finland: As expected Lappi tops the Himos stage but only by 0.1s from Tidemand.

His WRC2 lead is now 1m09.7s.

WRC - Finland: Once again Tanak and Evans are down-trodden as they finish the penultimate stage of the day.

Evans has apologised for his earlier mistake and is already looking ahead to tomorrow.

"Not the rally we wanted. I'm sorry for everybody who put in so much work in the team. We'll get it fixed tonight and do a proper job tomorrow."

Tanak also can't wait for the day to be over.

"The stages are far too rough for our car at the moment, but at least the day is nearly over."

WRC - Finland: We mentioned before that Sordo had overcame his exhaust issues, well . . . he hasn't. Somehow he was able to set the third fastest stage time with a loose exhaust.

DTM - Red Bull Ring: Mortara was never bettered during the 45 minutes of Friday practice, but Paffett got close. He moved to within 0.073s on his final lap to be second for the session, as six Mercedes drivers finished inside the top 10.

Wittmann was the best of the BMWs, in eighth, while Green was 17th. The full report will be online soon.

WRC - Finland: Sordo has well and truly overcome his previous exhaust issues. The Spaniard finished the stage just 3.5s off Latvala's pace.

He is now just 2.9s behind team-mate Neuville in the overall standings.

WRC - Finland: Latvala on the other hand is still on cloud nine from his stunning Ouninpohja run, which he believes has also helped him through Himos.

"I got a really good feeling on Ouninpohja and that gave me more confidence here."

WRC - Finland: Ogier has already been fairly vocal today about struggling in the loose gravel caused by the national rally competitors.

"It's not easy. All of this loop I have been in the loose [gravel] of the national rally competitors. I'm happy though, I've done my best,"

WRC - Finland: As expected Evans nurses his car through the short stage 33.8s off the pace. You have to admire his valiant effort, hopefully he can make it to service tonight.

WRC - Finland: We're now waiting for Evans, who is still battling his suspension issues, to come through. I feel like we may be waiting a while . . .

WRC - Finland: Meeke is 3.5s behind Latvala through Himos, meaning he is now 23.1s off the overall lead.

He has however extended the gap to team-mate Ostberg to 9.9s.

IndyCar - Mid-Ohio: The opening practice session is underway at Mid-Ohio. Rumours in the Iowa paddock that Stefano Coletti was dropping out of the series appear to be unfounded, as the KV driver is currently fastest. Or at least he was until 10 seconds ago, when James Jakes bumped him from the top.

WRC - Finland: Neuville, who is well off the leaders in the overall standings, has posted a very decent time through Himos.

He is faster than Ostberg and is 4.1s behind Latvala.

The stage didn't go without incident though.

"The ruts are so deep on this stage that I nearly rolled the car."

DTM - Red Bull Ring: Juncadella has moved up to second, about half a second off Mortara's best. Here's the order with six minutes to go:
1. Mortara
2. Juncadella
3. di Resta
4. Wittmann
5. Tambay
6. Paffett

Championship leader Green is 12th, winner last time out, da Costa is 21st.

WRC - Finland: Ostberg now follows Ogier through and is 4.3s slower.

WRC - Finland: Ogier is through with a 3m14.4s. Which is very similar to his opening run through Himos.

DTM - Red Bull Ring: With a third of the session remaining, Mortara leads the way for Audi with a 1m25.585s lap, ahead of di Resta and Wittmann, giving each brand a car inside the top three.

AUTOSPORT went trackside at the start of the session, and it was interesting to see a number of drivers overshoot Turn 1 - Martin managed it three times - and having to make quick decisions about how they navigated the yellow sausage kerb on the exit.

There's a hearty number of spectators (probably not Rally Finland numbers) in the grandstands, generally either enjoying a beer or ice cream with their DTM action.

WRC - Finland: While we're on the subject of rain, it's certainly in the air at the moment, and has been all week as David Evans explains:

The weather’s definitely been a bit on the mad side in Finland this week. A downpour yesterday flooded the centre of town in 10 minutes. An hour later, the water had gone, it was 22 degrees again and those boys had put their shoes back on.

Finland flood

WRC - Finland: Not long before the frankly epic battle for the lead will resume on the short Himos stage.

Paul Nagle talks us through the challenging section:

This is a really short stage for the spectators. It runs around the nursery slopes in a ski field at Himos. It would look pretty innocuous after the likes of Ouninpohja, but Kris and I still had a big moment in there last year. It absolutely poured down with rain here a couple of years ago and that made it very, very tricky.

WRC - Finland: It's been a tough day for Sordo and Neuville.

Sordo had an exhaust problem through SS7 but was able to hold on to fifth place.

That all changed after SS8 though where his team-mate Neuville jumped him by 3.5s.

WRC - Finland: Both Evans and Tanak, who are nursing problems, aren't too confident on making it to the end of the day.

"Judging the right speed to drive is difficult, but for now it's holding out", said Evans, and when asked whether or not he thinks he could make it back to service he said: "No."

Tanak is also slightly worried by the rough nature of the coming stages, which won't help his damper problems.

WRC - Finland: Lappi is unstoppable in WRC2 he is leading the class overall and is actually ninth in the complete overall standings.

He came through SS8 16.2s clear of Tidemand to increase his WRC2 lead to a stunning 1m09.6s.

WRC - Finland: Evans limps through the stage and is doing his best to look after the car.

If he does have to retire he picks up a five minute penalty per stage.

So, for now, he will valiantly soldier on wounded.

WRC - Finland: You have to feel for Evans. He is going to finish this stage more than three minutes down on the leaders.

He is definitely suffering the most with his suspension problems.

WRC - Finland: Ogier says he had a clean run through Ouninpohja but was suffering a bit.

"I had a clean run, but I'm suffering on the lines in the road from the national rally cars."

WRC - Finland: Latvala was so fast through Ouninpohja that he actually scared himself.

"I have never done this stage as fast.

"I actually got myself scared because I was carrying so much speed through the corners."

David Evans said Ouninpohja was one for the brave. It seems, at the moment, that Latvala is the bravest of them all.

WRC - Finland: Latvala through the sixth split is now 3.5s up on Ogier. If it stays like this he will take the overall lead!

DTM - Red Bull Ring: We’re just under half an hour away from the weekend’s first DTM practice session at the Red Bull Ring. The series’ newest winner, Antonio Felix da Costa was at the Friday press conference earlier, along with fellow Red Bull livery wearer Mattias Ekstrom and Austrian Lucas Auer. See how they organised that?

Zandvoort was a breakout weekend for da Costa, who claimed his first DTM podium, pole and win across a weekend dominated by BMW. Following the regular performance weight adjustments, BMW drivers lose some of the weight advantage they enjoyed in the Netherlands, and da Costa is keeping an open mind going into the weekend.

“It’s always hard to make predictions for a DTM race weekend,” he said.

“It’s so competitive that if you’re struggling a little bit with something, whatever it is, if you leave two or three tenths on the table it’s enough to drop you from the top five to the bottom five.

“We just have to make sure we have a clean weekend and obviously we need the performance from the cars that we clearly had in Zandvoort. If it goes, it goes, and we hope that it goes here.”