The Rally Finland has already claimed its first victims – Three drivers had to retire early on Friday morning
The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a guest in Finland, where one of the most spectacular gravel races of the 2023 season will be held. The 1000 Lakes Rally already started on Thursday with special stage (SS) 1, which was won by Ott Tänak. However, the Estonian was the first driver to retire on Friday morning on SS 3. He was followed by his M-Sport team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet and Hyundai driver Esapekka Lappi, who was involved in a violent accident.
In order: Tänak took the lead of Rally Finland by 0.6 seconds on Thursday and kept the M-Sport camp in high spirits on the Harju stage. The rally continued on Friday morning and it was Takamoto Katsuta who won SS 2, while current world champion Kalle Rovanperä in the Toyota narrowly took the lead as Tänak only finished seventh.
On SS3, a nightmare began for M-Sport as both Ford Pumas had to pull out after the 14.21 kilometre Lankamaa stage. Tänak had to retire due to engine damage on his Ford, which M-Sport said may have been caused by contact with an obstacle. Pierre-Louis Loubet hit a stone and damaged the left rear of the car. This meant that Saturday was already over for both drivers in the morning.
Tänak and his teammate Martin Järveoja were on their own, but worked long hours to get the car back on track. Both even lay in the mud and tried to fix the defect with the tools available to them on the side of the road where the car had to be parked to at least have a chance to get back into the action again.
Rovanperä secured the stage win by 1.8 seconds from Elfyn Evans, who moved up to second overall behind the Finn. After another stage win by Rovanperä on SS 4, his lead over Evans was already 3.6 seconds, while Thierry Neuville took over third place as best Hyundai driver. At this point, he was already 8.9 seconds behind the defending champion.
The next driver was hit on SS 5: Lappi went off the track on the Halttula stage and crashed the rear and front of his i20 into a tree. Both drivers immediately reported that everything was fine, but the car was badly damaged in the impact. The onset of rain made the grip conditions unpredictable, which is why Teemu Suninen almost had an accident as well. However, the Finn was able to catch his i20 in time.
Rovanperä was lucky to open the stage when the rain was not yet so heavy. With another stage win, he edged out Evans by 0.3 seconds and extended his overall lead to 3.9 seconds. Neuville is third, 12.3 seconds behind, after the first loop. Katsuta in fourth, Suninen in fifth and Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala in sixth completed the Rally 1 classification.
