Abu Dhabi: Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle extended their advantage in the overall standings on day two of Rally Finland on Saturday.
The Abu Dhabi Total WRT crew were in scintillating form on both runs on Ouninpohja, one of the most famous stages in the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Craig Breen and Scott Martin also produced a superb performance to end the day in the final podium spot.
The longest leg of Rally Finland, day two took the crews and teams near to Ouninpohja, 70 km to the south-west of Jyvaskyla. Without any preliminaries, the cars set off on this 33km-long stage, considered by many drivers to be akin to riding on a rollercoaster.
This year, the stage was made especially challenging by the fact that the series of fast bends, crests and jumps was contested in the opposite direction to recent editions of the rally. The drivers therefore had to alter their markers and references during recce.
As soon as the first splits appeared on the timesheets, it was obvious that Meeke had decided to put in a big performance. Barely out of breath at the end of the stage, the Ulsterman was clearly delighted to learn he had beaten Jari-Matti Latvala by a remarkable 13.4 seconds, a huge margin in the context of this rally.
With one telling blow, he had extended his overall lead beyond the 30-second mark.
Meeke eased off slightly to take second place on Paijala (SS14), before notching yet another stage win on Pihlajakoski (sS15). As he arrived for the mid-leg service, the leader was some 36.4s ahead of Latvala.
A good distance back from the top two, the third-placed driver was none other than Breen, who had also enjoyed a spectacular morning. Fifth at the start of the day, the Irishman was fourth by the end of Ouninpohja after he moved ahead of Thierry Neuville. On the next stage, he gained another position after Andreas Mikkelsen went off.
The team was not about to get carried away, however, as the stages still needed to be run again in the afternoon. Rain had been forecast for the last few days and a few showers finally fell on the gravel roads in the afternoon, but they didn’t hamper the progress of the Abu Dhabi Total WRT drivers.
Meeke was fastest again on Ouninpohja 2 – with a time that was around 10 seconds better than the morning’s run.
The day ended with the Northern Irishman holding a 41s lead over the second-placed driver, a fairly comfortable advantage considering the limited number of kilometres left to complete on Sunday.
After another error-free day, Shaikh Khalid Al Qasimi moved up the standings. The Abu Dhabi driver ended the leg in 19th position, having enjoyed the challenge provided by the iconic stages in the land of a thousand lakes.
