2021 Arctic Rally Finland – Saturday morning

Ott Tänak retained his stranglehold on Arctic Rally Finland by profitable two of Saturday morning’s three velocity exams to stretch his in a single day lead.

In excellent winter situations, the Estonian received the opening 24.43km Mustalampi and the closing 27.68km Siikakämä in his Hyundai i20. He arrived at mid-leg service in Rovaniemi with a 23.6sec benefit on this second spherical of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Solely a brush with a snowbank within the 19.91km Kaihuavaara prevented a hat trick, permitting Elfyn Evans to cease a Tänak clear sweep by claiming quickest time in his Toyota Yaris.

Craig Breen, mendacity second in a single day, fended off Kalle Rovanperä in Mustalampi however the Irishman couldn’t repel the younger Finn any longer. Rovanperä moved forward within the subsequent take a look at and the Yaris man held a 5.3sec benefit over Breen’s i20.

Rovanperä swiped a snowbank on a fast proper nook in Siikakämä however, regardless of in a single day adjustments, the 20-year-old remained annoyed with the steadiness of his Yaris.

Breen survived a couple of encounters with snowbanks within the opener and felt his tempo notes had been barely under par on the subsequent two exams.

Crew-mate Thierry Neuville was 5.8sec again in fourth. The Belgian struggled to listen to co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe’s tempo notes above his i20’s engine noise.

Evans was fifth, the Welshman feeling he was too sluggish in locations and too fast in others. He headed a captivating three-car scrap between Oliver Solberg, Takamoto Katsuta and championship chief Sébastien Ogier.

Teenager Solberg was up from eighth to sixth in his i20, holding a 1.1sec margin over the Japanese driver after a shocking third quickest time in Mustalampi on solely his fourth WRC stage in a World Rally Automotive. Katsuta had 1.8sec in hand over team-mate Ogier.

Teemu Suninen was distanced by the battling trio, the Finn slipping from sixth to ninth in his Ford Fiesta, with team-mate Gus Greensmith rounding off the highest 10.

Lorenzo Bertelli was an early casualty, the Italian diving deep right into a Mustalampi snowbank from which he was unable to emerge.

In FIA WRC2, Movisport’s Esapekka Lappi in his Volkswagen Polo GTI holds a 33.1s lead over Toksport’s Andreas Mikkelsen in a Škoda Fabia Evo. Lappi taem-mate’s Nicolay Gryazin is in third in one other Polo.

Nationwide champion Teemu Asunmaa leads the FIA WRC3 subject with a decent benefit of two.0s over Estonia’s Egon Kaur. Finland’s Eerik Pietarinen is an additional 56.1s behind.