The Rally of Finland has restarted this morning for the last day of competition, the one that will award the victory, the podium and the points of the third last round of the WRC 2021.
Ott Tanak knew he had to put pressure on Elfyn Evans and so he did, winning Special Stage 16, the 11.75km Laukaa 1, and reducing his lag behind the event leader.
The Hyundai Motorsport driver completed the test in 5’24 “2, or 4 tenths faster than his Toyota Racing rival. This, however, meant that the gap between the two has decreased, but only slightly. 9 “1 went to 8” 7 when there are just 3 special stages left.
Tanak proves to be faster than the Welshman, but only slightly. The only way to be able to really undermine the rival is to hope for a macroscopic error, because now the race kilometers are scarce.
The excellent race of Esapekka Lappi continues, third in the special 3 “1 behind Tanak. The Finn still occupies the fourth position in the general classification of the event at the wheel of a Toyota Yaris WRC, but by now his position is frozen.
Ahead of him, Craig Breen has an advantage of 21 “9, while behind Sébastieo Ogier he is 1m 44” 8 behind after the 1 minute penalty imposed on him by the race marshals for having badly fastened his helmet in one of yesterday’s tests.
Returning to Breen, the Northern Irishman from Hyundai Motorsport made a mistake during the special. A spin that made him lose a few seconds, but has such an advantage over Lappi that nothing should challenge his third place.
As for WRC2, the fight for success is getting more and more heated. Teemu Suninen continues to lead with the Movisport team’s Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, but behind him Mads Ostberg becomes more threatening. The gap between the two has narrowed to 5 “7 and now the struggle for class success is truly open.
Rally of Finland – General classification after SS16
Pos. | Pilot / navigator | Car | Time / posting | Penalty |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Evans / Martin | Toyota Yaris WRC | 2.03’11 “3 | |
2 | Tanak / Jarveoja | Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | +8 “7 | |
3 | Breen / Nagle | Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC | +25 “6 | |
4 | Lappi / Ferm | Toyota Yaris WRC | +47 “5 | |
5 | Ogier / Ingrassia | Toyota Yaris WRC | + 2’32 “3 | + 1’00 “ |
6 | Greensmith / Patterson | Ford Fiesta WRC | + 4’28 “6 | |
7 | Fourmaux / Coria | Ford Fiesta WRC | + 5’46 “2 | |
8 | Suninen / Markkula | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | + 8’44 “8 | |
9 | Ostberg / Eriksen | Citroen C3 Rally2 | + 8’50 “5 | |
10 | Huttunen / Lukka | Hyundai i20 N Rally2 | + 10’22 “7 |