OTT TÄNAK HEADED A TOYOTA GAZOO RACING 1-2-3 AFTER FRIDAY MORNING’S OPENING TWO SPEED TESTS AT NESTE RALLY FINLAND.
The FIA World Rally Championship leader lay second after Thursday night’s short curtain-raiser through the streets of host town Jyväskylä, but moved to the front as this eighth round of the season switched to gravel forest roads.
Fourth in Oittila was sufficient to promote him to the top of the rankings. Second through Moksi left the Yaris driver with a slender 0.3sec advantage over team-mate Kris Meeke.
The Estonian is opening the road today and admitted that creating a line through the slippery surface gravel was far from straight forward.
“It’s difficult, it’s a big job. I’m trying hard but it’s not so easy. The car feels really good and I will do everything I can. Let’s see what is possible, but today will be difficult,” he said.
Having missed last year’s rally, Meeke was delighted with a start that produced third fastest in Oittila and a stage win in Moksi.
“I’m really enjoying it. Here, I was a bit scrappy. A couple of junctions I came into too fast. We just need to tidy up in the loose stuff and I think we can improve,”said the Briton at the finish of Moksi.
Jari-Matti Latvala was 3.4sec further back in third, the Finn admitting to a few mistakes in Moksi, but rounding off an impressive show of strength from Toyota on roads close to its team base.
Esapekka Lappi was fourth in a Citroën C3, a second behind his fellow Finn. Team-mate Sébastien Ogier and Craig Breen, driving a Hyundai i20 for the first time in the WRC, rounded off a top six blanketed by 9.0sec.
A despondent Thierry Neuville trailed in ninth, already 17.3sec behind title rival Tänak. The Belgian felt his i20 was too soft initially, but was also perplexed by pace note issues
Source: WRC
