Lappi leaps forward, Gill suffers heartbreak on “crazy” day

Esapekka Lappi leads Rally Sweden after a “crazy” Friday where Australia JWRC rookie Taylor Gill was left “gutted” after a stroke of bad luck.

The seven-stage day proved to be a battle for many and shook up the pecking order to set up for an enthralling weekend in the Swedish snow.

The fight for FIA World Rally Championship honours saw Hyundai’s Lippi leap to the top by 3.2s over Takamoto Katsuta.

They are the runaway leaders with the impressive Oliver Solberg third over a minute off the pace in his WRC2 Skoda Fabia.

Regular snow flurries meant conditions were extremely challenging for drivers to contend with and some of the best were caught out.

Despite winning Stage 2, overnight leader Kalle Rovanpera only lasted until Stage 4 when he crashed out in his Toyota.

Ott Tanak was also a victim to the snowbanks and lost lots of time for Stage 4 onwards.

One driver who was not having any dramas was Lappi, who announced himself with a tight victory over Rovanpera on Stage 3.

Katsuta then rose to the occasion for Toyota by edging out Elfyn Evans before Lappi put the foot down towards the end of the day, winning the final three stages.

The only driver to break the dominance of Lappi and Katsuta was Estonian Georg Linnamae, who drove through a blizzard to give the new GR Yaris Rally2 car a maiden stage win.

Taylor Gill was going along very nicely until some tyre troubles struck.

The drama means it is an open field as Rally Sweden heads into the weekend.

There was also misfortune for Gill, whose promising JWRC campaign hit a cruel hurdle.

Day two started so well for Gill with a second place behind Mile Johansson in stage 2 giving him the JWRC overall lead.

He held the lead until Stage 4 when Fabio Schwarz jumped ahead, but the Aussie was far from out of the fight.

By Stage 6 Gill had leapfrogged Schwarz to sit second just 7.5s behind Johansson.

But heartbreak arrived on the penultimate stage of the day.

Two punctures hit Gill on Stage 7, which meant he lost nine minutes and 48 seconds.

As a result Gill sits 13th in the JWRC standings heading into the weekend and he was shattered by the turn of events.

“It is a cruel sport,” Gill said.

“While comfortably holding onto second place after SS6, we suffered a double puncture and lost over nine minutes. Gutted.

“We will continue tomorrow to make up some time and continue the learning.”

The other all Aussie combo of Peter Rullo and Ben Searcy had a productive day.

They currently sit 29th overall, just over 10 minutes off the pace in their first ever attempt rallying in the snow.

Another big seven stage day awaits on Saturday.

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