ESAPEKKA LAPPI RELEGATED FELLOW FINN JARI-MATTI LATVALA FROM SECOND PLACE DURING A STRONG START TO THE AFTERNOON’S SPECIAL STAGES FROM THE CITROËN C3 PILOT.
Lappi won the heavily rutted Pihlajakoski speed test by 2.1sec to regain the position he briefly held yesterday.
He followed up with second fastest in the roller coaster, but smoother, Päijälä to stretch the gap over the Toyota Yaris driver to 6.0sec with two more tests remaining today.
“That’s very positive that we can try to fight against the Toyotas,” said Lappi, who earned Latvala’s praise.
“He has found something special and is going really well at the moment. I maybe started to be a bit too cautious, but it is what it is. I took the first one steadily, we were a little afraid of the rocks. I need to think about the manufacturer points,”he explained.
Lappi’s pace moved him to within 14.4sec of leader Ott Tänak, who was also ultra-careful in Pihlajakoski. “It was very rough, so we were really careful not to damage any wheels or tyres,” said the Estonian.
Also on the move was world champion Sébastien Ogier. The unwell Frenchman felt slightly better than this morning and moved ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen.
The C3 pilot had 2.8sec in hand over Mikkelsen’s i20, with Craig Breen waiting to pounce a further 1.9sec back.
O/A after SS17 1.
Ogier +45.8 5.
Suninen +1:52.9 9.
