Rally Finland: Esapekka Lappi leads after team-mate Latvala retires
World Rally Car rookies Esapekka Lappi and Teemu Suninen will start the final day of Rally Finland first and second, with Lappi holding a comfortable lead for Toyota
Jari-Matti Latvala's retirement while inching away in the rally lead on the second running of Ouninpohja left his team-mate Lappi facing an untroubled run towards a win on his home World Rally Championship round, in only his fourth start in the series' top class.
Lappi, WRC2 champion last year and European Rally champion in 2014, has a 49.1-second lead over M-Sport Ford driver Suninen.
Finns still hold a 1-2-3 at home, but Toyota's one-two has been disrupted by Suninen - in only his second World Rally Car start - getting ahead of Juho Hanninen by going quickest on Saturday's penultimate stage Pihlajakoski.
A rollbar problem caused Hanninen to back off slightly, and as well as falling 4.3s behind Suninen he is also now just 1.3s ahead of flying DMACK Ford driver Elfyn Evans - who won the concluding Paijala stage.
Thierry Neuville is now up to sixth place and closing on Craig Breen ahead as he tries to take advantage of WRC title rival Sebastien Ogier's absence following his heavy Friday morning crash.
Hyundai has been off the pace all weekend, but Neuville felt the cleaner road conditions of the afternoon loop helped make the car handle the best it had so far and he closed to within 14s of Breen's Citroen.
Ogier may yet rejoin to go for powerstage points on Sunday, subject to the outcome of further medical tests on his concussed co-driver Julien Ingrassia.
Ott Tanak, recovering after damaging a tyre while leading early on Friday, has now reached seventh place.
He picked up that spot when Kris Meeke sustained a puncture on the last stage, though Tanak had been on course to overhaul the Citroen regardless.
At the foot of the top 10, the delayed Mads Ostberg is charging up behind Dani Sordo for ninth.
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS21:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 2h13m02.7s |
2 | Teemu Suninen, M.Markkula | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 49.1s |
3 | Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 53.4s |
4 | Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 54.7s |
5 | Craig Breen, S.Martin | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 1m16.9s |
6 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1m31.6s |
7 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 2m07.5s |
8 | Kris Meeke, P.Nagle | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 2m59.1s |
9 | Dani Sordo, M.Marti | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 3m54.0s |
10 | Mads Ostberg, T.Eriksen | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 4m23.6s |
11 | Jari Huttunen, A.Linnaketo | Printsport | Skoda | 9m11.8s |
12 | Eric Camilli, B.Veillas | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 9m31.4s |
13 | Teemu Asunmaa, J.Halttunen | Hannu's Rally Team | Skoda | 10m52.2s |
14 | Quentin Gilbert, R.Jamoul | Skoda | 11m18.2s | |
15 | Tom Cave, J.Morgan | Adapta AS | Hyundai | 12m27.9s |
16 | Valeriy Gorban, S.Larens | Eurolamp WRT | Mini | 12m43.3s |
17 | Khalid Al-Qassimi, C.Patterson | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 13m36.6s |
18 | Max Vatanen, J-J.Renucci | Ford | 14m08.5s | |
19 | Osian Pryce, D.Furniss | Drive Dmack | Ford | 15m00.0s |
20 | Hiroki Arai, G.MacNeall | Tommi Makinen Racing | Ford | 15m19.4s |
21 | Simone Tempestini, G.Bernacchini | Gekon racing | Citroen | 16m17.9s |
22 | Jari Kihlman, T.Ikonen | Hyundai | 17m16.1s | |
23 | Raul Jeets, K.Sikk | Skoda | 19m40.4s | |
24 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 20m40.3s |
25 | Kees Burger, M.Lukka | Skoda | 22m57.1s | |
26 | Nicolas Ciamin, T.de la Haye | Ford | 25m05.6s | |
27 | Emil Lindholm, T.Tuominen | Ford | 26m30.7s | |
28 | Julius Tannert, J.Heigl | ADAC Sachsen | Ford | 28m36.2s |
29 | Dennis Radstrom, J.Johansson | Ford | 28m45.0s | |
30 | Nil Solans, M.A.Ibanez | Ford | 28m51.9s | |
31 | Ari Saxberg, P.Leppala | Skoda | 29m38.6s | |
32 | Jouni Virtanen, K.Siekkinen | Citroen | 30m15.2s | |
33 | Dillon van Way, D.Roberts | Ford | 35m30.5s | |
34 | Pierre-Louis Loubet, V.Landais | Ford | 38m47.9s | |
35 | Gus Greensmith, C.Parry | Ford | 39m23.8s | |
36 | Umberto Accornero, N.Arena | Peugeot | 43m33.0s | |
37 | Raimo Kaisanlahti, A.Sparre | Ford | 48m15.3s | |
38 | Miguel Diaz-Aboitiz, D.Sanjuan | Ford | 53m00.0s | |
39 | Sami Juusonen, J.Talso | Suzuki | 59m44.8s | |
40 | Juuso Nordgren, M.Korhonen | TGS Worldwide Ou | Skoda | 1h01m08.6s |
41 | Umberto Scandola, M.Ferrara | S.A. Motorsport Italia SRL | Skoda | 1h01m24.9s |
42 | Takamoto Katsuta, M.Salminen | Tommi Makinen Racing | Ford | 1h01m45.6s |
43 | Lars Stugemo, K-O.Lexe | Skoda | 1h07m20.9s | |
44 | Atte Kivioja, P.Haataja | Peugeot | 1h09m47.0s | |
45 | Jukka Metsala, S.O.-Aho | Skoda | 1h09m57.1s | |
46 | Shunichi Washio, Y.Ishikawa | Toyota | 1h10m18.2s | |
47 | Henrik Pietarinen, J.Lummaa | Ford | 1h20m12.7s | |
48 | Julien France, P.Mazarguil | Citroen | 1h27m38.4s | |
49 | Mikko Lehessaari, R.Hamalainen | Hannu's Rally Team | Skoda | 1h29m05.2s |
50 | Kari Hytonen, A.Herranen | Peugeot | 1h42m05.0s | |
51 | Philippe Casado, L.Zurbach | Peugeot | 1h46m06.7s | |
52 | Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1h58m33.4s |
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