Big retirements shape WRC Rally Finland

Kalle Rovanpera, Ott Tanak, and Esapekka Lappi all retired on Day 2 of the WRC Rally Finland, giving Toyota’s Elfyn Evans the lead.

It was a day of big carnage for the three WRC front runners, First with Tanak suffering yet another disastrous engine failure to retire from Rally Finland, then Lappi enduring a big crash on Stage 5 before the service break, then, a rare error on Stage 8 from the championship leader saw another big crash. All drivers and their co-drivers thankfully pushed the green Ok buttons.

WRC championship leader Kalle Rovanpera’s Toyota was a totalled mess on Stage 8. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

Rovanpera dug the nose of his #69 GR Yaris into the dirt 11km into Stage 8, flipping the car forward and onto its roof, and with Evans being the following runner, was waived by the totalled Rally1 and into the immediate lead.

Rovanpera had won five straight stages to have a six second lead in a fast and tight rally, with Evans then taking a +10.9s lead at the time over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who was lucky to survive the morning after his Hyundai was very loose in the rear.

Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi lost control at high speed on Stage 5. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

Hyundai’s Lappi was fourth by just +9.2 when he went sideways at speed before meeting a birch tree head on, tearing the front of his Hyundai up.

And there was yet another accident in the early morning stages with M-Sport losing both its Ford Puma’s when Pierre-Louis Loubet hit a bank at speed, liberating himself of his back left Tyre. 

Although he’s had some tough luck with mechanical issues this year, Loubet has also made plenty of mistakes, and it makes for a rotten two weeks for the Ford team as they judged the cause of Tanak’s engine failre to be impact damage from underneath.

The two Ford’s of Tanak and Loubet retired on Day 2 after engine failure and a crash. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

After all that, Neuville fought back immediately on Evans after Rovanpera faltered, winning Stages 8, 9, and 10 to carve the gap down to +6.9s.

Takamoto Katsuta, winner of the days opening stage, made it a third Toyota in the top three, +16.4s in arrears of his teammate, and +28.8s up on Teemu Suninen, with the part-timer now tasked with keeping Hyundai in the points alongside his second placed teammate.

Neuville survived the day to be +6.9 seconds behind Evans. Image: Red Bull Content Pool

The remaining Rally1 car at the car of the WRC field is the Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala as he finds himself +1:23.7 back in his one-off appearance for the team.

Rounding out the top-ten is the top-five of the WRC2 field with Jari Huttunen in the lead over Sami Pajari, with Nikolay Gryazin, Oliver Solberg making it four straight Skoda’s, whilst Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux sits in P10 as the highest blue oval in the field.

After all of that, tomorrow is the longest leg of Rally Finland, with 160.68km covering eight stages.

Leading positions after Friday:

1. E Evans / S Martin GBR Toyota GR Yaris 51m 34.4s
2. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N +6.9s
3. T Katsuta / A Johnston JPN Toyota GR Yaris +16.4s
4. T Suninen / M Markkula FIN Hyundai i20 N +28.8s
5. J-M Latvala / J Hänninen FIN Toyota GR Yaris +1m 23.7s