Toyota dominating Finland

Toyota appears unstoppable with Kalle Rovanpera leading a 1-2-3 for the Japanese giant at Rally Finland.

The first full day in the Finnish forests was a demanding one with rain adding to the challenge on the high-speed gravel loop.

Part-timer Rovanpera tamed the challenging conditions to emerge with a 8s lead over Elfyn Evans, who was closely followed by Sebastian Ogier to complete the Toyota top three.

The conditions caught out many with Ott Tanak retiring after a high-speed crash on Stage 3. 

Although both Tanak and Martin Jarveoja were declared “well” by the Hyundai team, the latter will spend the night in hospital as a precaution.

Esapekka Lappi then took over Hyundai’s charge before getting caught out by some deep ruts and bounced into a tree, which ripped the right rear wheel from the car.

“The ruts were really deep, but I was not expecting I would bounce off from these ruts as they were so deep, I didn’t think it would be possible,” said Lappi, who hopes to rejoin tonight.

“I arrived at this place much slower than the first pass. I jumped out of the ruts and then I couldn’t do anything as it was so close to the trees.

Rovanpera was easily the most comfortable in the slippery conditions.

He hit the lead on Stage 3 and did not let it go with further wins in Stages 5, 6 and 7.

In the end he emerged 8s clear of Elfyn Evans.

But rookie Sami Pajari ended up being the big star of the day, taking in maiden WRC stage win in only his ninth attempt.

It came after a wild day where he damaged his GR Yaris early on, but still had enough pace to edge ahead of Ogier by 0.5s in Stage 9.

Toyota handed an extra fifth drive to the Finn and he was stunned to take a stage on debut.

“I thought before the rally that (a stage win) would be nice but I thought it would be like too much, so I was not expecting anything like this,” said Pajari.

“Even on this Ruuhimaki stage I was not planning to do a stage win but it was a clean drive, and I was enjoying it. 

“I’m not going to say it was easy or something like this, but I wasn’t pushing like crazy.”

Six stages are ahead on Saturday led by the iconic Ouninpohja.

READ THE PIASTRI VICTORY ISSUE OF AUTO ACTION DIGITAL HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine.