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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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