Jyvaskyla, Finland: Estonia’s Ott Tanak stayed comfortably on course for victory in the Rally of Finland on Saturday as world championship leaders Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville struggled on the gruelling forest tracks.
Tanak, in a Toyota, won five of the day’s eight special stages, extending his overall lead over Citroen’s Mads Ostberg of Norway to 39 seconds, and 44 seconds over teammate Jari-Matti Latvala of Finland.
Victory on Sunday will give the 30-year-old his second win of the season after triumphing in Argentina in April and fourth in his career.
Five-time world champion Ogier was 2 min 7 sec back from Tanak in seventh place while series leader Neuville was in 10th spot, more than three and a half minutes behind the Estonian.
Both Ogier and Neuville had struggled since Friday morning when they were the first cars off the start, forced to ‘clean’ the track but with their efforts hampered by loose gravel compromising their cars’ grip.
Sunday will see four stages raced over a total of 45.72km.
Standings
1. Ott Tanak-Martin Jarveoja (EST/Toyota Yaris) 2hr 13:18.2, 2. Mads Ostberg-Torstein Eriksen (NOR/Citroen C3) at 39.0, 3. Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (FIN/Toyota Yaris) 44.4, 4. Esapekka Lappi-Janne Ferm (FIN/Toyota Yaris) 1:20.6, 5. Hayden Paddon-Seb Marshall (NZL-GBR/Hyundai i20) 1:29.6, 6. Teemu Suninen-Mikko Markkula (FIN/Ford Fiesta) 1:45.1, 7. Sebastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (FRA/Ford Fiesta) 2:07.6, 8. Elfyn Evans-Daniel Barritt (GBR/Ford Fiesta) 2:17.9, 9. Craig Breen-Scott Martin (IRL-GBR/Citroen C3) 2:56.4, 10. Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul (BEL/Hyundai i20) 3:34.5, 11. Andreas Mikkelsen-Anders Jaeger (NOR/Hyundai i20) 8:00.5, 12. Eerik Pietarinen-Juhana Raitanen (FIN/Skoda Fabia) 8:54.7