Estonian Ut Tanak (Hyundai I20 WRC) leads the second stage of the Arctic Rally in Finland, the second round of this year’s World Championships. The leader won three of the six special stages on Saturday.
Second in the standings, with a difference of 24.1 seconds, is Cali Rovanber (Toyota Yaris WRC), and Belgian Thierry Nouvel (Hyundai I20 WRC) is third, with a difference of 25.9 seconds.
“Everything is going according to plan. The tires are damaged but we have arrived. It was important that we were at the end of this stage without mistakes,” Tanak said.
French defender Sebastian Augier (Toyota Yaris WRC) initially would not succeed in Finland. At the end of the special section race last Saturday from Siikakama (27.68 km), Ogier ran off the road and got stuck in a snow cliff. It took the World Championship crew about 20 minutes to dislodge the car from the trap, reach the finish line with such a delay and stop relying on the title fight.
“It was the last part of the road. The tires are no longer there, I bent a lot against the snow drifting and it happened. It’s tough, we have to forget this weekend as soon as possible” – Augier admitted.
The Frenchman is currently the leader of the world championship after the first round – the Monte Carlo Rally, which he won. In France, in January, 2019 world champion Tanak did not score points, after he broke two tires in one division and the team pulled him out because he did not have a reserve and was unable to reach the start of the next stage.
On Sunday, the crew is required to ride the 22.5 km section of Aittajarvi 2 twice. The second run for this test will be Power Stage, where you can score bonus points for the World Championship General Ranking.
There are 12 rounds in the World Rally Championship calendar this year after events in Sweden and Great Britain were canceled. The season will end in mid-November at the Japan Rally. (PAP)
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