WRC Rally Finland
Live Text
Sort by
Autosport
Here's the full report of the morning's action to tide you over until then: 
The crews are off to service now - time to change some set-ups for very wet conditions this afternoon, perhaps?
We'll take a pause and resume live coverage from SS8 at 1pm UK time.
We'll take a pause and resume live coverage from SS8 at 1pm UK time.
So at the end of a massive six-stage morning, it's an all-Toyota, all-Finn battle for the lead between Latvala and Lappi, just 0.5s blanketing Ostberg, Breen and Suninen in third to fifth, Hanninen and Meeke inseparable in sixth and seventh, Evans leaving Neuville behind in eighth and Tanak closing on Sordo for 10th. And Ogier watching from the sidelines.
Ostberg is having his strongest rally of the season so far. Third fastest time on this stage takes him up to third overall ahead of Breen for now, and Suninen looks unlikely to beat him.
Yep, Ostberg jumps from fifth to third!
Yep, Ostberg jumps from fifth to third!
David Evans
Big clouds gathering over Jyvaskyla now. The forecast rain looks to be coming for the afternoon...
Rain
And it's started raining.
Meanwhile Breen says he has set-up change ideas to try at service, his Citroen having got less to his liking through the morning.
He initially thought a heavy landing might've damaged a damper but that doesn't seem to be the case.
He initially thought a heavy landing might've damaged a damper but that doesn't seem to be the case.
And it's not a great start for Suninen - he's slowest at split one. Not by enough to suggest a major problem, but he's lost 3.9s to Breen there.
That could end up costing him places to Ostberg and Hanninen.
That could end up costing him places to Ostberg and Hanninen.
Breen is through third fastest, a touch behind Evans. The relevant comparison for Breen is flying M-Sport rookie Suninen, who began this stage just 0.3s behind him in their fight for third overall. Suninen has just started the stage now.
Hanninen and Meeke have been swapping sixth place for the past couple of stages and there's little to split them again here. Meeke is 0.2s faster at the first split and was 0.8s behind.
Lappi has begun the stage, and he's 1.5s off Latvala at the first split.
Twitter
Neuville is so far down the order there's little point comparing his times to Latvala's, but they do show just how little pace the Hyundai has right now - Neuville is 6.5s off on the splits.
Meeke grabbed sixth from Hanninen on the last stage, but the splits suggest the Toyota might nip back in front on this one.
Breen is in, 0.3s slower than Latvala, which puts him 9s off the Toyota overall.
The drivers to watch for Breen are Lappi, who he's chasing for second, and Suninen, who's chasing him for third.
The drivers to watch for Breen are Lappi, who he's chasing for second, and Suninen, who's chasing him for third.
Breen is second fastest to Latvala, but he's still concerned about that potential problem - saying the front of the car doesn't feel right.
This really isn't good for Neuville. He's fighting Elfyn Evans's understeering DMACK Ford for eighth overall and just lost another 1.4s to the Fiesta on this stage, meaning the gap between them is up to 6.8s.
Tanak will quickly clear the WRC2 cars of Ole Christian Veiby and Eric Camilli to get up to 11th overall, then he faces a 58.9s gap to Dani Sordo in 10th.
Quote
That wasn't smooth for Tanak either: "We had the wiper stuck in the middle of the screen and then we missed a junction."
Tanak's fightback is under way. He only fell to 13th overall with his damage on the previous stage but it doesn't look like there's any lingering damage as he's within 0.8s of Latvala's stage pace.
Twitter
Information
We keep jinxing the crews who do our Autosport Live stage descriptions. This time it's Paddon's co-driver Seb Marshall, who won't be calling the notes as their car is out for the day.
SS5 Halinen (4.75 miles)
This stage was only introduced last year, so it's quite a new one. The finish has been extended by 500 metres, but that last section is dead-straight, so I'm not really sure why they added it on.
Generally quite narrow from the start this stage gets a bit wider about halfway through. The new finish location offers a bit of a challenge in itself, with a jump coming straight after the flying finish. So, literally, the car will break the finish line beam, hit the bump and take off.
There are a couple of chicanes in this stage, but they're a real feature of the rally this year.
SS5 Halinen (4.75 miles)
This stage was only introduced last year, so it's quite a new one. The finish has been extended by 500 metres, but that last section is dead-straight, so I'm not really sure why they added it on.
Generally quite narrow from the start this stage gets a bit wider about halfway through. The new finish location offers a bit of a challenge in itself, with a jump coming straight after the flying finish. So, literally, the car will break the finish line beam, hit the bump and take off.
There are a couple of chicanes in this stage, but they're a real feature of the rally this year.
Breen is the sole non-Finn in the top four. M-Sport hopes now rest on its flying rookie Teemu Suninen, who is currently fourth in only his second World Rally Car outing.
Lappi was fastest on the last stage, which brought him ahead of Craig Breen - who was a bit concerned that he might've damaged his Citroen on a heavy landing. He's still third for now.
With Ott Tanak and Hayden Paddon both damaging their cars on Jukojarvi too when running first and third (Tanak is now down to 13th, Paddon is out), we have a Toyota one-two with home heroes Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi up front.
Not that Neuville and Gilsoul can be too cocky this morning. They've struggled for pace so far and are only ninth on the leaderboard.
Twitter
As his championship lead over Thierry Neuville was down to 11 points heading to Finland, that's bad news for Ogier - and it prompted a cheeky retweet from Neuville's co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul between stages just now.
Twitter
Crash
The headline news is that Sebastien Ogier is out. He may well be able to rejoin for Saturday, but a massive sack of Rally2 time penalties await him so his hopes of scoring probably rest on the powerstage.
Autosport
Good morning and welcome to Autosport Live's Rally Finland coverage.
You join us for part two of loop one - the rally packing six stages in before service this morning. Fair to say the first run became pretty dramatic:
You join us for part two of loop one - the rally packing six stages in before service this morning. Fair to say the first run became pretty dramatic:
By: Matt Beer
Published:
Lap:
