Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finally won Rally Finland, laying to rest the ghost of last year when they crashed out on the penultimate stage.

It was a scintillating final Wolf Power Stage which Rovanperä won by two seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier.

The Finnish wunderkind took the Super Sunday bonus points and moves into second place in the championship standings, just three points off Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the title lead after a disastrous weekend for Ott Tanak.

Tanak suffered a delaminated tyre which caused a high-speed spin on the final stage while Adrien Fourmaux suffered yet another puncture and retired four km from the end of the stage to avoid further damage to his car.

Elfyn Evans brought his GR Yaris home in fourth overall having won the morning’s first stage by 0.4 seconds from Ogier.

Sami Pajari came home in fifth overall, giving Toyota a top five lockout, only the second time in history, a feat last achieved by Lancia 35 years ago on Rally Portugal in 1990.

Thierry Neuville brought his Hyundai home in sixth overall, having run in second place until his fateful puncture on stage 16 on Saturday afternoon.

Josh McErlean was the top M-Sport Ford crew in seventh, followed by Martins Sesks and Gregoire Munster. Ott Tanak salvaged a single point for tenth.

Roope Korhonen fended off TGR Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala to claim his maiden WRC2 victory with Robert Virves rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full story on the fastest rally in history where Rovanperä averaged 129.9km/h!

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Wet weather greeted the competitors on Saturday morning as the longest day of Rally Finland got underway.

Overnight, Ott Tanak was given a five-minute penalty for a scrutineering incident in a tyre checking zone after stage seven, where he had just crashed into a tree. The penalty dropped the Estonian down to 24^th position in the overall standings.

Rovanperä, chasing his first home win, set off to increase his lead which he almost doubled from 4.9 to 8.3 seconds after Saturday’s opening stage. On stage 12, the Finn’s lead was 12.0 seconds but on (unlucky) stage 13, he picked up a slow puncture and lost 2.7 seconds to Thierry Neuville, who still held second overall.

Rovanperä powered his GR Yaris to another stage win to extend his lead to 14.7 seconds at the end of the morning loop after Neuville lost the rear brakes on his Hyundai. The podium fight between the Belgian and Adrien Fourmaux in third was down to 0.3 seconds.

After the midday service, it was raining again and the crews faced tough conditions. Martins Sesks crawled through the first part of stage 15 with zero visibility and finally found a safe place to pull over and clear the misted-up windscreen. He lost over two minutes and dropped from being the leading M-Sport crew to tenth overall.

At the sharp end of the field, Sebastien Ogier took his first stage win with the top five drivers covered by a mere 1.2 seconds. Sami Pajari turned up the wick to take the fastest time in stage 16 having lost his sixth place overall to Elfyn Evans on the previous stage.

Stage 16 tuned the rally on its head. Lightning struck Hyundai twice; firstly, Fourmaux picked up a right-front puncture which did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to his i20 N as he continued, albeit at a reduced pace and moments later, Neuville also picked up a right-front puncture.

Fourmaux dropped a minute 48.8 seconds and plummeted to seventh, while Neuville lost one minute 38.2 seconds and dropped to sixth overall. Both drivers said they had no idea how their punctures had happened…

Suddenly, Toyota held a one-two-three-four-five with Rovanperä streaking away with a twenty-nine second lead over Takamoto Katsuta, Ogier, Evans and Pajari.

The final two stages went off without any incidents, with Rovanperä taking the scratch time in both stages to end the day with a 36.8 second lead while Evans was closing on Ogier with 1.5 seconds separating the pair.

In WRC2, Roope Korhonen continues to lead with Jar-Matti Latvala holding second from Robert Virves.

The final day features just two stages; the iconic Ouninpohja stage, at 23.98km in length will be run twice.

It is far from over…

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen completed their domination of the fourth round of the World Rally Championship, winning 15 of the 18 stages en route to building a 53.5 second cushion over the eight-time WRC champion Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were ranked third in all the metrics; overall, Super Sunday and Wolf Power Stage extending their advantage at the top of the championship leaderboard to 43 points.

Rovanperä won the Super Sunday standings and topped the Wolf Power Stage timesheets giving the Finnish Toyota Gazoo Racing crew the maximum haul of 35 points which elevates them to second overall in the title race, up from sixth in one fell swoop.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston made it a Toyota 1-2-3-4 exorcising the Japanese driver’s ghost from Safari Rally Kenya where he crashed out on the final stage.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria were the leading Hyundai team in fifth place, followed by Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja in sixth and the luckless Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe coming home in seventh after a puncture in the penultimate stage cost them a minute.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy crashed their M-Sport Ford Puma out of the rally in the morning’s opening stage.

Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand took their second victory of the year in WRC2 and lead the championship after fending off the very close attention of Alejandro Cachón and Borja Rozada in a thrilling battle.

Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov brought their Skoda home in third place.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full report. On Monday, obviously!

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With just the super special stage remaining on Saturday, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen won every stage of the day, giving the rally leader not only a full house of 12 stage wins out of 12, his lead extended to an impressive 45.7 seconds ahead of Sebastian Ogier, who eased away from Elfyn Evans who was 23 seconds adrift in third.

The morning loop of the longest day of the rally saw ‘business as usual’ at the head of the leaderboard. Rovanperä won all three of the morning stages to extend his lead over Sebastian Ogier to 36.9 seconds.

Ogier ran Rovanperä close in the two opening tests, finishing one second adrift in SS7 and 0.7 seconds in the following stage. Rovanperä re-asserted his mastery in the final stage before service, hustling his GR Yaris through the 23.3km test 8.4 seconds quicker than anyone else.

Elfyn Evans maintained his third position in something of a no-mans-land; too far behind Ogier to challenge for second and well ahead of Toyota’s rising star, Sami Pajari. Stage eight saw the top four Toyotas covered by 1.2 seconds, with Pajari snapping at Evans’ heels on occasion, finishing stage eight and nine 0.4 seconds behind the championship leader on both occasions.

Takamoto Katsuta got in on the action as well, setting the third best time in SS9 but remained behind Pajari in the overall standings.

Adrien Fourmaux was once again the quickest Hyundai and pushed his teammates down the order as he re-claimed sixth overall. Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak were still experiencing handling issues and languished in seventh and eighth. They set near-identical times in stage eight but were still only seventh and eighth quickest.

M-Sport Ford’s duo of Grégoire Munster and Joshua McErlean were mired at the foot of the Rally1 standings, battling their ill-handling Pumas.

After the service break the order remained unchanged with one difference. Evans only set the sixth fastest time, beaten by Pajari, Katsuta and Fourmaux in stage 10.

Munster was a little optimistic in stage 11, hustling his recalcitrant Puma too fast into a corner 3.5km into the stage. He missed a tree by millimeters but beached himself in a clump of thick bamboo and lost three minutes as spectators battled to manhandle the car back onto the road.

Stage 12 brought disaster for Sami Pajari; with a split time well up on Katsuta, he understeered into a barrier around 20km into the stage and damaged the right front corner of his Yaris. Game over.

The fight in WRC2 was intense: Yohan Rossel still led but he was under attack from Alejandro Cachón and Nikolay Gryazin. Rossel’s lead was down to 14.8 seconds after the morning loop but by close of business ahead of the super special stage, the French ace’s lead was back to 20.5 seconds.

The final 1.8km stage brought an end to Rovanperä’s rout. Evans took the stage win from Ogier with Neuville tied on time with Rovanperä.

Five stages and 58km remain with ten bonus points up for grabs.

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen dominated the opening day of Rally Islas Canarias, winning all six stages to enjoy a commanding 26.8 second lead over Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais, heading a stunning Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2-3-4-5.

Rovanperä laid down his marker as early as the shakedown stage on Thursday, setting the quickest time by just over four seconds. The double world champion made his GR Yaris Rally1 obey his every command around the twisty, sometimes narrow 118.8km of tarmac stages.

Ogier had the measure of Evans – who opened the road – but the gap between the two Yaris drivers was just 9.6 seconds.

The championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were doing what they needed to do, setting a risk-free pace knowing their title rivals Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were enduring a miserable day along with the entire Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team squad.

Adrien Fourmaux was the leading Hyundai across the morning loop of stages while Ott Tanak/Martin Järveoja and Neuville languished in seventh and eighth respectively, mystified by their i20 N’s poor handling. To put that in perspective, Neuville lost 13 seconds in the opening stage alone…“Honestly, it’s not very enjoyable and it’s just not working,” Neuville said. “I can’t take any line. Nothing is working.”

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended the opening three-stage loop 0.2 seconds behind Fourmaux; after the first stage after the midday service, Pajari had moved ahead of the Frenchman with the fifth Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston lining up the Hyundai who duly took fifth in stage five.

From being the fastest Hyundai before lunch, Fourmaux became the slowest and lost positions to Neuville and Tanak although the advantage between the two champions was a whisker at 0.8 seconds with Fourmaux another 0.7 seconds further back. There were no happy faces in the Korean camp…

The M-Sport Ford Pumas were – there’s no other description – pedestrian, propping up the bottom of the Rally1 timing sheets. In the opening stage, Munster was more than one second per kilometer off the pace and ended the day a whopping 2’11” off the lead. Both he and Josh McErlean reported handling issues.

In WRC2, Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand were doing a “Rovanperä”, winning all six stages in their Citroen C3, if not at a canter, sufficiently quick to hold off the Spanish Rally Champion Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Leo Rossel Guillaume Mercoiret in the second PH Sport Citroen rounded out the class podium.

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin claimed their maiden Safari Rally Kenya victory giving Toyota Gazoo Racing  their fifth straight win in the modern Safari era. Hyundai secured their best Kenyan result with a two-three podium for Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe.

Evans, with his second consecutive victory has extended his lead in the Driver’s Championship to 36 points while Toyota Gazoo Racing still leads the Manufacturers standings.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria won the Wolf Power stage and topped the Super Sunday standings, taking the maximum 10 point bonus.

Sami Pajari completed his maiden Safari adventure in fourth overall with Takamoto Katsuta provisionally in fifth assuming he makes it to the final control in what was a very sick sounding car after rolling his GR Yaris one kilometer into the final stage, losing fourth place overall while chasing the Super Sunday win, where he was a mere 0.3 seconds behind Fourmaux going into the Wolf Power Stage.

Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka brought their Puma home in sixth while the final Rally 1 runner, Greek gentleman driver Jourdan Serderidis and Frederic Miclotte took home a couple of points for ninth overall.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen retired after Sunday’s first stage with electrical problems

Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson made it back-to-back WRC2 African victories in their Skoda Fabia RS, their task made easier after  their major challenger Jan Solans and Rodrigo Sanjuan rolled their Toyota GR Yaris on Sunday’s opening stage.

Read Motorsport Monday for a full rally report on Monday (obviously!)

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Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin survived the six-stage mud bath that was Safari Rally Kenya on Saturday. Overnight rain turned the stages into a quagmire while ongoing rain – torrential at times – shuffled the leaderboard almost by the stage.

Heading out on Saturday morning, Evans had a slender 7.7 second lead over his double world champion teammates Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen but after the day was done, Evans had 1’57.4” in hand over Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja and 4’33.4” over third placed Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, provisionally giving Hyundai their best Safari result since it returned to the WRC calendar in 2021.

The first casualty of the day was Adrien Fourmaux who did not start Saturday, the team elected to save the car for Super Sunday.

Evans took his first stage win of the rally and driving with a fine balance of speed and caution more than doubled his lead on stage 12 after Rovanpera had a left-front puncture.

In stage 11, Neuville lost 1’25” changing a flat tyre and Josh McErlean hit a rock which caused a puncture which they stopped to change. A few km further down the road, the Puma pulled up with a broken steering rack, which cost the Irish duo 20 minutes to repair.

Takamoto Katsuta, still feeling weak and co-driver Aaron Johnston ended the stage with a tyre hanging off the rim, deflating their podium aspirations.

As stage 12 got underway, Munster stopped again for yet another puncture, leaving the M-Sport crew with no more spares. Neuville dropped 42.8 seconds but refused to speak at the end of the stage. He too was ill with a tummy bug so did well in the circumstances. Evans took his second consecutive stage win, extending his lead to 37 seconds.

Stage 13 was largely dry but extremely muddy towards the end; Rovanpera had a puncture and dropped 1’20” to Katsuta who lit up the timing screens, 14.5 seconds quicker through the 28.9km stage – the longest of the day – than Tanak.

It got worse for Rovanpera in stage 13 when he suffered another left-front puncture after going off the road to avoid a large herd of zebra in the road – only in Africa! Evans’ lead mushroomed to 1’32.5” while Tanak closed to within 17 seconds to the #69 Yaris.

Torrential rain began to fall as the stage got underway, with Munster, running second on the road, going completely sideways to his direction of travel but he saved his Puma and continued.

Both Hyundais had issues with the windscreen misting up with Wydaeghe using a selfie-stick and a cloth to wipe the windscreen for Neuville!

Evans had a spin in a straight line as the conditions worsened but Rovanperä’s rally went south in stage 14 when a wishbone broke and although he came home with the second fastest stage time, there was still a long way to go. After the stage finish, he strapped the broken piece with ratchet straps. Would it hold for another 46.6km of stages to run?

Stage 15: it started to rain at the start of the stage but the early runners, Jourdan Serderidis, Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean had the best of the conditions. The later runners all faced significant rain and slippery roads, while Katsuta and Neuville each had a right-front puncture.

It started raining heavily towards the end of the stage, which Munster won followed by McErlean, giving M-Sport Ford a one-two stage result.

Rovanpera limped through the stage, his wheel moving about and unable to put any forces through the left-rear and lost 2’56”, handing Tanak second position.

Evans was in the pound seats with a 2’50” lead with one stage remaining.  The stage start and end were awash and there was no grip, with everyone running wide at some point, especially over the final four km of the stage. Katsuta had another puncture, McErlean was missing his front bumper and Neuville had a misfire, but it was Tänak who took the fastest time, followed by Neuville.

Evans tip-toed through the stage – the rally was his to lose and ended the day with 1’57.4” in hand over Tanak, who had a cushion of 2’36″ over Neuville. Katsuta, Rovanpera – who lost another 3’18.5” in the final stage, and Pajari, who had a steady drive on his maiden visit to Kenya completed the top six

The rally leader played down his chances, saying: “It’s been remarkably difficult out there today. This has definitely been a proper Safari. Even this morning the conditions were really quite tricky after a lot of rain overnight. Then the rain came again immediately as we started the afternoon loop. The conditions were horribly inconsistent, and I was trying to treat everything with care but it’s easy to drop a lot of time. I couldn’t see much at all at the end with so much mud, but I’m happy we managed to get through it. Even with this gap, nothing is guaranteed on this rally. Tomorrow will be demanding and rough and anything can still happen, so we need to stay focused.”

Second placed Tanak said: “There has been a lot of action today, especially this afternoon – it was proper wet and tricky conditions. Unfortunately, we had some trouble with the windscreen again and water in the car, which made it a very demanding loop. The conditions change from stage to stage so you never really know what you are going to find. There is always a new challenge you need to fight and overcome. Tomorrow should be smoother but the roads are still very rough in places.”

Gus Greensmith emerged from the carnage to lead the WRC2 category after fending off Jan Solans, who took the lead on Saturday’s third stage, opening a gap of 19 seconds over his Skoda rival before the brit struck back in the tricky final stage.

Oliver Solberg won three of the day’s six stages but remains over half an hour off the lead.

Sunday’s final day features five stages in total, beginning with a return to Thursday evening’s Mzabibu stage. Oserengoni and Hell’s Gate will then be run twice either side of final service, with the second pass of Hell’s Gate once more serving as the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.

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Friday, the longest day of the WRC Safari Rally Kenya, was brutal in every sense. Cars arrived back at the final service missing chunks of bodywork, bumpers were torn, slitters were missing but through it all, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin landed up with a 7.7 second lead over Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen, in a now familiar Safari Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

The day started with the longest stage of the rally, a nasty sinewy, tight, undulating, damp piece of Kenya but it didn’t stop Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja from taking an immediate lead after blitzing the 31.4km stage by 2.1 seconds ahead of the reigning world champion Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, giving Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team cause for hope to end their African drought.

Tanak went on to win three of the morning’s stages, heading into service with a handy, if not comfortable 24.4 second lead over Evans.

After the second stage of the afternoon loop, Tanak’s lead had almost doubled to 46.1 seconds before a driveshaft issue lost the i20 N pair 68 seconds over the 13km SS10, and the rally lead.

“It’s been a difficult day, and we’ve erred on the side of caution,” said Evans. “Obviously some guys have had trouble, which is unfortunate, but it’s part of the Safari. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes because you feel like you can take a bit more risk and go a bit faster, but I keep reminding myself where we are.

“It’s a shame for Ott, obviously, to have a mechanical [failure] like that. You never know in this game if it’s because the car has had an impact or if it’s just a standard failure, but it’s a shame for him because he was going well.”

Tänak said: “At the end of the second stage of the afternoon, I noticed we had a driveline issue, but we managed to finish the stage. We then realized it was an issue with the driveshaft but we were unable to remove it before the penultimate stage, so we had to drive through it carefully to stop it from damaging the engine. Luckily, we managed to remove it for the final stage, so we didn’t have to nurse it. We will try to come back tomorrow but we know it’s rough, its demanding and its hard on the car.”

Rovanperä , whose only bother was a spin in stage four, turned up the wick to win the day’s final two stages and close on his teammate with Tanak relegated to third overall some 55.4 seconds off the lead.

Neuville, who started the day in eighth place, incurred a one-minute penalty for leaving the morning service six minutes late, and went on to pick up a jump start penalty and another minute for leaving the midday service six minutes late and suffered two punctures along his climb back up the leaderboard to end the day in fourth.

Takamoto Katsuta ended Friday in fifth after not sleeping the previous night due to a tummy bug. He had two punctures in the day’s opening stage, relegating him to survival mode as he was out of spare rubber.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended their debut Safari in sixth position despite stopping to change a tyre in in morning’s first stage. Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka caught up to the young Finn and were blinded by the Toyota’s dust and hit a rock.

The M-Sport Ford driver had to deal with his Puma going into limp mode and later emerged from stage eight with a missing right-front fender. There were further troubles for the Puma driver who broke a bumper which folded over the air intake, leaving the Luxembourger to manage high engine temperatures, relegating him to 11^th overall.

His young teammate Josh McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy had a solid drive to seventh. In stage seven, the Irishman stopped to investigate heat in the cabin, but there was no sign of a fire, which they thought may have been the issue. It turned out to be the spare wheel which came loose and punched a hole in the Puma’s boot, allowing the heat from the squashed exhaust into the cabin – along with loads of dust, leaving the pair to complete the day wearing goggles.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria retired (again) in stage seven with broken right-front suspension after not stopping to change a flat tyre.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson lead WRC2 from the start to midway through stage seven when his Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris bogged down in thick sand.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz ended the day in the WRC2 lead after a fierce battle with Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson, the gap between the warring Toyota and Skoda pair 10.2 seconds. Spaniard Jan Solans manhandled his GR Yaris Rally2 to third despite running the final trio of stages without power steering.

Saturday takes crews north to Lake Elmenteita for a trio of tests that are all familiar from previous years: Sleeping Warrior, Elmenteita and Soysambu. All three will be repeated after midday service in Naivasha.

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Super Sunday on Rally Sweden was just that! After 300km of hard racing, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin won the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship by 3.8 seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston in another Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe brought their Hyundai i20 N home on the final step of the podium, fending off the attentions of the 2019 World Campion Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja by 4.9 seconds.

The final day featured two runs over the longest stage of the rally and the Wolf Power Stage; the first 29.35km run over Västervik saw Katsuta set the fastest time, beating Evans by a relatively massive 7.5 seconds – and re-taking the overall rally lead with a margin of 4.5 seconds and two stages remaining.

Evans dug deep in the penultimate stage, setting the fastest time, crucially 8.2 seconds faster than his Japanese teammate and with a 3.7 second cushion heading into the 8km Power Stage, it was going down to the wire!

Katsuta set the benchmark time in the Power Stage but Evans was 0.1 seconds faster, clinching 35 points for a perfect weekend score.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen brought their GR Yaris home in fifth, ahead of the leading M-Sport Ford Puma of Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, winning the ‘battle of the youngsters’ by beating Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen by 22.2 seconds.

The third youngster, Ireland’s Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy, buried their Puma deep in a snow bank 14.9km into the day’s first stage. They rejoined thanks to a group of spectators who helped dig their car out, but fell way down the order.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson made it a hat-trick of WRC2 victories on Rally Sweden after leading throughout the four day event. Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka took second with Mikko Heikkila/Kristian Temonen rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday tomorrow for a full Rally Sweden report

The post Elfyn Evans wins Rally Sweden by a whisker appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin maintained their lead on Rally Sweden after another seven blisteringly fast stages but came under intense pressure from his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston.

Kalle Rovanperä took his first Rally Sweden stage win to get the day underway. Katsuta pipped Evans by 0.5 seconds, bringing the overall lead down to just one tenth of a second. Tänak was 1.6 seconds off the lead while Fourmaux was drifting away from the fight.

On stage 10, Evans pipped Rovanperä by 0.4 seconds while Tänak had an issue – he wouldn’t say what the problem was at the stage end interview but he lost time on the next stage as well, losing his podium place to Neuville who won the last stage of the morning loop.

Fourmaux was only tenth quickest on stage 11 and dropped to sixth overall behind a resurgent Rovanperä 9.8 seconds up the road.

Munster was second on the road and was 1’56.3’ off the pace, looking all at sea and a shadow of the driver who took his maiden stage win in Monte Carlo three weeks ago.

Whatever the issue was with Fourmaux’s and Tanak’s Hyundais, it was sorted at the midday service and the two troubled drivers bounced back in style. Fourmaux took the stage win with Tänak one second behind and Evans 0.2 seconds further back.

Katsuta overshot a corner and had to reverse out, losing only 4.4 seconds but it allowed Evans some breathing space at the top of the leaderboard with a six second overall lead, while Tänak found himself 11.3 seconds adrift of the top spot, and shadowed by Neuville, 2.6 seconds behind in fourth.

“I overshot and backed up, I don’t know how much I lost. It was a stupid mistake but this is the first time I made a mistake this weekend so it is okay. I want to continue on. I feel very confident we can get the time back and will try not to make a mistake again,” the Toyota star reported at the end of the stage.

Stage 13 claimed the first major scalp – Fourmaux ran wide into a snowbank, and the front end of the Hyundai dug in. Although he tried to power the car out, it was beached up to the chassis. The frozen crew tried – in vain – to dig themselves out and were forced to throw in the towel, a fate that also befell Tuukka Kauppinen earlier in the day.

The final forest stage, SS 14, saw Neuville bank another stage win, one second quicker than Katsuta and 2.4 seconds up on Tänak. Evans dropped 2.6 seconds to Katsuta to end the serious business with a six second lead with the third Umeå Sprint left to run.

Evans had a moment with a snowbank, oh-so-close to ‘doing a Fourmaux’ but he got away with it. “It wasn’t a big hit with a bank, pretty low grip and I lost the front on the way in. The speed wasn’t so wrong, just the angle of the car was wrong. It hurts a bit down the next straight,” said Evans after his heart-stopping moment in stage 14.

The final stage saw Evans go into a sharp corner a bit too hot and he half spun and stalled, losing three seconds to Katsuta; the inter team fight was three seconds going into Super Sunday while lurking ever closer to the lead, Neuville was 3.3 seconds behind the Japanese driver and 6.3 seconds off the top step of the podium.

Tänak held on to fourth in spite of managing issues, which he refused to elaborate on. Rovanperä started the day 23 seconds off the pace and ended the day 22.9 seconds behind Evans.

Martins Sesks held sixth, 12.2 seconds ahead of fellow newbie Sami Pajari who in turn was 22.2 seconds ahead of Josh McErlean. 40.1 seconds behind the Irishman, was Munster…

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg enjoyed a comfortable 39 second lead over Roope Korhonen with Mikko Heikkila up in to third.

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