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Latvala admits Tanak is on another level here. He's not wrong.
Speaking of Toyota drivers, Latvala is finished this stage, setting a 6m56.2s. Fastest so far.
Stopwatch
Guess who's setting the pace in the splits? It's Tanak, of course, 1.2s up on Ostberg around midway.
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"Small little problem with the brakes in there, not sure what, which threw my confidence a little bit," notes Paddon. Yet he's fastest so far, at least until Ostberg and the two remaining Toyotas show up shortly...
Paddon's now in, clocking a 7m00.3s.
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"Struggling with the rear. Couldn't keep the line. It's limiting me to go faster," says Suninen, explaining his pace drop-off.
Suninen has arrived. It's not great news - he couldn't mitigate his time loss in the second half of that stage, a 7m03.3s costing him 6.3s to Lappi. Their gap is now only 5.9s in the battle for fifth place.
Ogier lost another 5.6s to Lappi and 1.6s to Evans through there.
Reigning champion Ogier is at stage end. He sets a 7m02.6s.
We're hearing Lappi's mistake from earlier was running wide through the grass. Without a replay it's left to our imaginations what that might have looked like, though if its only two seconds, one imagines it won't have been as dramatic as Suninen's off-road trip yesterday.
Speaking of M-Sports, Evans sets a 7m01.0s, 4.0s down on Lappi.
All three M-Sports are down on Lappi's splits, but Suninen is doing decent damage control here. He's only 0.7s slower at the second split than Lappi.
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"No no no," Lappi replies when suggested he'd turned in a fast time. "I made a mistake in the beginning so I lost maybe two seconds."
Stopwatch
Lappi clocks a 6m57.0s. That's 4.5s up on Breen, and 3.1s up on Evans at the final split.
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"It's a pity because I have a nice feeling with the car. I'm enjoying it. Just frustrated with everything that happened yesterday," says Breen at stage end.
Now here comes Breen - a 7m01.5s puts him 2.5s quicker than Neuville and fastest so far. But Lappi behind is quicker still, 1.5s up at final split...
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Asked if a damper change has helped him cope with road sweeping, Neuville replies. "No, not really."
"One car on the road helps already a lot in this condition," he continues, referring to team-mate Mikkelsen.
"One car on the road helps already a lot in this condition," he continues, referring to team-mate Mikkelsen.
Neuville goes 10.6s faster than Mikkelsen with a 7m04.0s stage time.
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"It feels like the car is floating on top of the road and not biting in," explains Mikkelsen. Ah, the perils of opening the road on a dry, dusty Finnish stage...
Meanwhile, at the other end of the stage, Mikkelsen is in, with a 7m14.6s.
Lappi's kicked off his first run through Pihlajakoski. He's already leapfrogged two M-Sports in Evans and Ogier this morning - can he do the same to Suninen here?
And into the stage goes Neuville's nearest rival in Finland's overall classification, Breen. Neuville lost 6.2s to him on the previous stage - he'll need to arrest that slide or Neuville will find himself stranded in 10th place.
Championship leader Neuville is on his way and, if he doesn't get his skates on, risks falling away from ninth placed Craig Breen...
Green flag
After a small delay for that Al Qassimi gap, Mikkelsen is on his way.
Information
As Mikkelsen gets ready to start, here's a brief of what to expect from this stage from Seb Marshall, co-driver to Hayden Paddon.
SS13/19 Pihlajakoski (9.25 miles)
This is one of only two stages which are completely unchanged from last year’s route. It’s a great stage which is quite narrow at the start but then turns out onto a classic, wide Finnish road – and it’s then like this all the way through. There’s one chicane in from last year, and actually it’s not really it’s a chicane, it’s going round two sides of a triangular junction. This is the sort of road we come here for.
SS13/19 Pihlajakoski (9.25 miles)
This is one of only two stages which are completely unchanged from last year’s route. It’s a great stage which is quite narrow at the start but then turns out onto a classic, wide Finnish road – and it’s then like this all the way through. There’s one chicane in from last year, and actually it’s not really it’s a chicane, it’s going round two sides of a triangular junction. This is the sort of road we come here for.
David Evans
Today represents the hard yards in what could be a championship march for Thierry Neuville. Starting the day 10th, 23s down on Craig Breen’s ninth place and two minutes off the front, the series leader admitted his weekend in Finland would be an uphill struggle.
“It’s difficult to do anything without the others having problems,” he said. “The place on the road is a little bit better, but let’s see.”
Championship-wise, Sebastien Ogier is in a much better place in Finland and admitted day one hadn’t been a disaster for him.
He said: “Being first on the road, Thierry hasn’t been so often there and I’m always happy when somebody else does my job – they say “Ah, it’s not so bad…” But he lost two minutes. We have a nicer place on the road today, but still it’s going to be tough to match Ott. I think we could find a little bit from the car, but I was on my limit yesterday and there was no way to match him.”
“It’s difficult to do anything without the others having problems,” he said. “The place on the road is a little bit better, but let’s see.”
Championship-wise, Sebastien Ogier is in a much better place in Finland and admitted day one hadn’t been a disaster for him.
He said: “Being first on the road, Thierry hasn’t been so often there and I’m always happy when somebody else does my job – they say “Ah, it’s not so bad…” But he lost two minutes. We have a nicer place on the road today, but still it’s going to be tough to match Ott. I think we could find a little bit from the car, but I was on my limit yesterday and there was no way to match him.”
As we get ready to begin with Andreas Mikkelsen now first - with Al Qassimi now retired - a quick check-in regarding the man who'll follow him out onto the stages, team-mate Thierry Neuville. DAVID EVANS explains the plight of our title contenders.
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Welcome back! We're moments away from our next stage - Pihlajakoski - getting underway. A few quick things to catch up on beforehand.
Khalid Al Qassimi is done for the day after his earlier accident - a tweet showing the damage inbound shortly. So too some words from our stage winner from earlier Ott Tanak, with some scary words for his competitors...
Khalid Al Qassimi is done for the day after his earlier accident - a tweet showing the damage inbound shortly. So too some words from our stage winner from earlier Ott Tanak, with some scary words for his competitors...
Stage 13, Pihlajakoski, kicks off at 9:29am local time, or in other words 25 minutes from now. We'll take a quick break and be back for more WRC action then!
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And now a quick glance at those updated WRC2 standings after SS12;
1. Rovanpera 1h20m04.8s
2. Pietarinen +41.4s
3. Huttunen +1m06.7s
4. Veiby +1m11.0s
5. Greensmith +2m17.0s
1. Rovanpera 1h20m04.8s
2. Pietarinen +41.4s
3. Huttunen +1m06.7s
4. Veiby +1m11.0s
5. Greensmith +2m17.0s
A quick check-in with our junior WRC2 drivers now, where Skoda hotshot Kalle Rovanpera continues to lead on his home debut.
Rovanpera goes quickest by 8.9s here, as Ole Christian Veiby takes one second out of Jari Huttunen in their battle for third place. It's worth remembering Veiby was leading until a trip wide through a ditch on Friday damaged his brakes.
Eerik Pietarinen is still second but drops 9.4s to Rovanpera.
Rovanpera goes quickest by 8.9s here, as Ole Christian Veiby takes one second out of Jari Huttunen in their battle for third place. It's worth remembering Veiby was leading until a trip wide through a ditch on Friday damaged his brakes.
Eerik Pietarinen is still second but drops 9.4s to Rovanpera.
Information
So, two main men on the move this morning and both are driving Toyotas. Not a great surprise. Tanak strengthens his lead as Lappi jumps past two out of three M-Sports, with the next Ford Fiesta already in his sights.
1. Tanak 1h15m51.3s
2. Ostberg +14.3s
3. Latvala +31.6s
4. Paddon +50.6s
5. Suninen +1m00.4s
6. Lappi +1m12.6s
7. Evans +1m18.8s
8. Ogier +1m20.4s
9. Breen +1m52.6s
10. Neuville +2m22.4s
1. Tanak 1h15m51.3s
2. Ostberg +14.3s
3. Latvala +31.6s
4. Paddon +50.6s
5. Suninen +1m00.4s
6. Lappi +1m12.6s
7. Evans +1m18.8s
8. Ogier +1m20.4s
9. Breen +1m52.6s
10. Neuville +2m22.4s
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Before we get into overall classification implications, a quick recap of those stage times from SS12 (Paijala 1)
1. Tanak 11m36.4s
2. Latvala +8.5s
=. Ostberg +8.5s
4. Lappi +11.2s
5. Paddon +14.2s
6. Suninen +14.3s
7. Evans +17.7s
8. Breen +18.5s
9. Ogier +21.5s
10. Neuville +24.7s
1. Tanak 11m36.4s
2. Latvala +8.5s
=. Ostberg +8.5s
4. Lappi +11.2s
5. Paddon +14.2s
6. Suninen +14.3s
7. Evans +17.7s
8. Breen +18.5s
9. Ogier +21.5s
10. Neuville +24.7s
Stopwatch
Stage winner, Ott Tanak. By a long way. 11m36.4s, 8.5s up on Ostberg and Latvala. A clear message has been sent.
Without a road position advantage, Mads Ostberg was less likely to match Tanak as well has he did on Friday. He sets an identical time to Latvala, but as we know, Tanak was well up on him a moment ago.
Stopwatch
Jari-Matti Latvala is in and he's beaten team-mate Lappi, setting an 11m44.9s. But two places back on the road is Tanak, who's 7.6s fatser than Latvala at the fifth split!
Paddon sets an 11m50.6s, 0.1s faster than Suninen but 3.0s off Lappi here.
Suninen comes in with an 11m50.7s, cutting his advantage over Lappi to 12.2s.
By: Matt Beer
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