Kalle Rovanperä is leading the Secto Rally Finland after the Friday morning session. His rival Ott Tänak crashed, and Takamoto Katsuta hit a tree. Tänak was the first major retirement of the event, crashing on the SS3 Saarikas stage. His Hyundai ended up on its side in a ditch after losing control and hitting a tree. Tänak was unharmed, but his co-driver Martin Järveoja was taken to the hospital for further checks. Thierry Neuville, who was hoping for rain, had a difficult start to the rally. He described the first stage as a disaster due to the diffs opening up, causing him to struggle with his Hyundai. The disaster continued on SS3 when Neuville missed his braking point and went off the track. He is currently in fifth place, around 13.9 seconds behind the leader.
The leaderboard is currently dominated by a group of Toyotas, with Evans setting the pace on the first stage before Rovanperä took the lead on the second stage. Evans reclaimed the lead on the Myhinpää stage but was not happy with the car’s performance. Rovanperä responded with a strong performance on the Ruuhimäki stage to regain the lead by a small margin. Ogier, competing in his first Rally Finland in a Rally1 car, is currently in third place, just 3.0 seconds off the lead. Katsuta had a wild moment on the Ruuhimäki stage, hitting a tree and damaging his Toyota. He was able to continue but lost over a minute.
Pajari had a challenging start to his Rally1 debut, spinning his Toyota on SS2 and later running into a ditch. He is currently in eighth place. Fourmaux, driving for M-Sport, expressed frustration with his lack of progress and blamed the team’s decision not to do a pre-event test. He is currently in sixth place. Munster, also driving for M-Sport, stalled his engine on the first test and is over a minute behind the leader in seventh place.
Photo – Kalle Rovanperä (X)
