A blistering Friday afternoon performance from Jari-Matti Latvala enabled him to stretch his advantage at the end of the Neste Oil Rally Finland leaderboard.
The Finn added less than four seconds to his overnight lead during this morning’s four special stages. But a hat-trick of stage wins this afternoon allowed him to build a 19.7sec lead in his Volkswagen Polo R at the end of the second leg of the four-day event, despite an early morning scare when he dropped his car into a ditch.
The ultra-fast gravel roads suited Kris Meeke, who moved his Citroen DS3 into second, relegating world champion Sébastien Ogier’s Polo R into third. The gap between them is 1.6sec.
The Northern Ireland driver showed his best pace to date for the French team and won a stage this morning. Stage opener Ogier took on an unwilling role as sweeper as the afternoon sun dried the roads, leaving a coating of loose surface gravel.
Andreas Mikkelsen, Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Østberg fought hard behind the leading trio. Hirvonen held the initiative for most of the day until a spin allowed Østberg, who became increasingly confident after overnight set-up changes, moved ahead.
But Mikkelsen leapfrogged them both to hold a 1.2sec advantage in his Polo R over the Norwegian’s DS3, with Hirvonen a further 1.9sec adrift in his Fiesta RS.
Hayden Paddon showed good pace with an oil-thirsty Hyundai i20 to hold seventh with Elfyn Evans (Fiesta RS), Juho Hänninen (Hyundai i20) and Craig Breen (Fiesta RS) completing the leaderboard.
A blistering Friday afternoon performance from Jari-Matti Latvala enabled him to stretch his advantage at the end of the Neste Oil Rally Finland leaderboard.
The Finn added less than four seconds to his overnight lead during this morning’s four special stages. But a hat-trick of stage wins this afternoon allowed him to build a 19.7sec lead in his Volkswagen Polo R at the end of the second leg of the four-day event, despite an early morning scare when he dropped his car into a ditch.
The ultra-fast gravel roads suited Kris Meeke, who moved his Citroen DS3 into second, relegating world champion Sébastien Ogier’s Polo R into third. The gap between them is 1.6sec.
The Northern Ireland driver showed his best pace to date for the French team and won a stage this morning. Stage opener Ogier took on an unwilling role as sweeper as the afternoon sun dried the roads, leaving a coating of loose surface gravel.
Andreas Mikkelsen, Mikko Hirvonen and Mads Østberg fought hard behind the leading trio. Hirvonen held the initiative for most of the day until a spin allowed Østberg, who became increasingly confident after overnight set-up changes, moved ahead.
But Mikkelsen leapfrogged them both to hold a 1.2sec advantage in his Polo R over the Norwegian’s DS3, with Hirvonen a further 1.9sec adrift in his Fiesta RS.
Hayden Paddon showed good pace with an oil-thirsty Hyundai i20 to hold seventh with Elfyn Evans (Fiesta RS), Juho Hänninen (Hyundai i20) and Craig Breen (Fiesta RS) completing the leaderboard.