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WRC Arctic Rally: Tanak extends lead with two morning stage wins

Ott Tanak has extended his lead in the Arctic Rally, round 2 of the World Rally Championship, after claiming two wins out of the three stages on the morning loop

The Estonian, driving Hyundai's i20 WRC car, now holds a 23.6-second advantage over the Toyota of Kalle Rovanpera, who has passed the Hyundai of Craig Breen for second place overall.

Britain's Elfyn Evans, lying fifth, won the second stage of the day in his Toyota to keep the pressure on the fourth place Hyundai of Thierry Neuville.

Teenage Swedish driver Oliver Solberg holds sixth place in his first-ever appearance at the wheel of a full WRC car, driving a 2020-spec Hyundai and keeping in front of the 2021-spec Toyotas of Takamoto Katsuta and defending champion Sebastien Ogier.

The M-Sport Ford Fiestas of Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith complete the top 10.

"In the end a good morning, yes, but very, very demanding," Tanak said.

"The stages are incredibly fast and at that speed, never seeing the roads, the pacenotes are never 100% and you always have places where it's a bit this way or the other way... so far so good!"

In WRC2, the return of former M-Sport driver Esapekka Lappi in a VW has seen the Finn build a 33s advantage over Norwegian championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen's Skoda, having won all five of the stages run so far.

The battle for WRC3 honours is currently separated by just 3.3s, the advantage with Finnish driver Teemu Asunmaa's Skoda ahead of Estonia's Egon Kaur in his VW.

The same loop of three stages will be repeated this afternoon with large sections of snow expected to have been scrubbed away by the passage of the cars to expose underlying gravel.

Successfully balancing the demands of pace and tyre management is therefore expected to be at a premium to reach the end of the day safely.

WRC Arctic Rally Finland results after Stage 5

Pos Class Driver Car Gap
1 RC1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja Hyundai 1h07m28.0s
2 RC1 Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen Toyota 23.6s
3 RC1 Craig Breen, P.Nagle Hyundai 28.9s
4 RC1 Thierry Neuville, M.Wydaeghe Hyundai 34.7s
5 RC1 Elfyn Evans, S.Martin Toyota 37.3s
6 RC1 Oliver Solberg, S.Marshall Hyundai 51.3s
7 RC1 Takamoto Katsuta, D.Barritt Toyota 52.4s
8 RC1 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia Toyota 54.2s
9 RC1 Teemu Suninen, M.Markkula Ford 1m10.9s
10 RC1 Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson Ford 1m52.1s
11 WRC2 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Volkswagen 3m06.2s
12 WRC2 Andreas Mikkelsen, O.Floene Skoda 3m39.3s
13 WRC2 Nikolay Gryazin, K.Aleksandrov Volkswagen 3m46.7s
14 RC1 Janne Tuohino, R.Hamalainen Ford 3m59.2s
15 WRC3 Teemu Asunmaa, M.Salminen Skoda 4m20.6s
16 WRC3 Egon Kaur, S.Simm Volkswagen 4m22.6s
17 RC1 Pierre-Louis Loubet, V.Landais Hyundai 4m41.5s
18 WRC2 Eyvind Brynildsen, V.Engan Skoda 4m49.1s
19 WRC2 Adrien Fourmaux, R.Jamoul Ford 4m51.0s
20 WRC3 Eerik Pietarinen, A.Linnaketo Skoda 5m18.7s
21 WRC3 Mikko Heikkila, T.Luhtinen Skoda 5m25.2s
22 WRC2 Ole-Christian Veiby, J.Andersson Hyundai 5m26.7s
23 WRC3 Mattias Ekstrom, E.Bergkvist Skoda 6m13.7s
24 WRC2 Martin Prokop, V.Chytka Ford 7m12.8s
25 WRC3 Fabrizio Zaldivar, C.del Barrio Skoda 7m55.6s
26 WRC3 Gregor Jeets, K.Pannas Skoda 8m02.3s
27 WRC3 Vladas Jurkevicius, A.Paliukenas Skoda 8m21.1s
28 WRC3 Pekka Keski-Korsu, M.Silfvast Skoda 9m07.0s
29 RC2 Ville Hanhisuanto, M.Toppinen Ford 9m14.0s
30 WRC3 Michal Solowow, M.Baran Citroen 9m21.3s
31 WRC3 Tuomas Skantz, K.Kallio Skoda 9m29.7s
32 WRC3 Ari-Pekka Koivisto, J.Karpijoki Skoda 9m51.5s
33 RC4 Sami Pajari, E.Malkonen Ford 10m16.1s
34 WRC3 Rakan Al-Rashed, H.Magalhaes Volkswagen 11m20.6s
35 RC4 Lauri Joona, A.Koponen Ford 11m56.8s
36 WRC3 Jussi Keskiniva, M.Kaikkonen Skoda 12m20.4s
37 WRC3 Adrian Chwietczuk, J.Baran Skoda 12m24.0s
38 WRC3 Marko Viitanen, T.Suominen Skoda 13m03.0s
39 WRC3 Lars Stugemo, K-O.Lexe Skoda 13m14.6s
40 WRC2 Sean Johnston, A.Kihurani Citroen 14m14.0s
41 WRC3 Johan Kristoffersson, P.Barth Volkswagen 14m27.4s
42 WRC3 Ville Ruokanen, T.Pallari Skoda 15m45.3s
43 RC2 Luca Hoelbling, F.Fiorini Hyundai 16m27.2s
44 RC2 Bertrand Pierrat, A.Chevalier Hyundai 18m10.3s
45 RC2 Mika Karppanen, A.Heinonen Citroen 19m30.2s
46 RC4 Teemu Kortesalmi, S.Kuruaho Ford 19m35.9s
47 WRC3 Miguel Diaz-Aboitiz, D.Sanjuan Skoda 20m55.7s
48 RC4 Toni Herranen, S.Virtanen Ford 21m22.0s
49 RC2 Pieter Cracco, J.Vermeulen Skoda 22m33.3s
50 WRC2 Georg Linnamae, V.Korsya Volkswagen 23m06.3s
51 WRC3 Mauro Miele, L.Beltrame Skoda 28m46.2s


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