Rally Finland is one of the fastest in the entire 2024 WRC and, if you make a mistake, it often presents a price that can be very high. Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja understood this well, authors of a terrible accident in Special Stage 3, the 15.93-kilometer Saarikas 1.
The Estonian Hyundai Motorsport crew entered the test second, behind teammates Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe. After 2 kilometres, just after a left-hand bend, the No. 8 i20 N Rally1 went off the road, flipping over and striking a roadside tree with its underside.
The car came out badly damaged from the pile-up and Ott Tanak immediately called the doctors. The crew, fortunately, managed to get out of the car with the public who intervened on the spot to help the two Estonians.
Both were taken to the medical center for routine tests. Ott Tanak did not suffer any physical consequences, while Martin Jarveoja was taken to the hospital for further precautionary checks.
Thierry Neuville also made a mistake. Having entered the stage first, he went long in the last sector, missing the braking point before a left-hand bend, ending up on a road in the middle of the woods. This made him lose over 13 seconds and the concrete possibility of winning the special.
SS3 was also dominated by Toyotas, with the four leading GR Yaris Rally1s taking four places in the top five. The stage was won by Kalle Rovanpera with a 4-tenth advantage over Elfyn Evans. Thanks to this result, Rovanpera and the Welshman both overtake Sébastien Ogier and become respectively the leader of Rally Finland and the closest pursuer.
Esapekka Lappi instead showed off a great performance that brought him to finish in third place, 9 tenths behind Rovanpera. Thanks to this he recovered 2 positions in the general classification, climbing to fifth place.
The fight for first place among the Rally2 is very interesting, with Oliver Solberg battling with Robert Virves and Jari-Matti Latvala for the first position in the class. The Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal seems to have a great feeling with the GR Yaris Rally2, so much so that he has signed such good times that he is fighting for the first position among the cars of the same level.
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