Pre-event Following
Citroën's sacking of
Kris Meeke, the team promoted
Mads Østberg and
Torstein Eriksen to replace him and his co-driver
Paul Nagle as lead drivers.
Thursday Ott Tänak, driving a
Yaris, took a 0.7-second lead over championship leader
Thierry Neuville, while defending world champion
Sébastien Ogier was 0.1 second further behind.
Andreas Mikkelsen was in fourth place in another
Hyundai i20, another slender 0.1 second behind, while defending rally winner
Esapekka Lappi was in fifth.
Shakedown top two
Mads Østberg and
Craig Breen tied in sixth, followed by local Finn
Jari-Matti Latvala.
Hayden Paddon and
Elfyn Evans cleared the stage in ninth and tenth respectively.
Friday Friday witnessed a great fight between
Ott Tänak, who drove a
Yaris, and
Mads Østberg, who drove a
C3. After rally leader changed several times, the Estonian ended the day with a 5.8-second lead. Local Finn
Jari-Matti Latvala completed the day in third, with
Hayden Paddon led
Hyundai in fourth position after
Teemu Suninen fell back in the final stage of the day with
brake issues in his
Fiesta. Title contender
Sébastien Ogier, who was second on the road, climbed up to sixth overall after
Ford gave his teammate
Elfyn Evans a
team order, which ordered him to slow down in SS10 before reaching the finish line. Defending rally winner
Esapekka Lappi, who stalled his car at the opening stage of the day, cleared the day in eighth place, while
Craig Breen, who suffered an early
puncture and a late fuel pressure issue, completed the day in ninth. Championship leader
Thierry Neuville, who struggled for grip all the day due to being first on the road, completed the leaderboard. Teammate
Andreas Mikkelsen finished down the order after rolling his
i20.
Saturday and
Torstein Eriksen crew during the event. Saturday in Rally Finland was dominated by three
Yarises.
Ott Tänak, who stormed away with a 39-second over
Mads Østberg,
Jari-Matti Latvala, who closed the gap the Norwegian to only 5.4 seconds, and
Esapekka Lappi, who climbed up four places after his effort, took all eight stage victories of the day to make
Toyota a 1-3-4 finish.
Hayden Paddon, who led
Hyundai in fifth place, manage to stay ahead of local Finn
Teemu Suninen despite
brake problems and high tyre wear. Defending world champion
Sébastien Ogier, who struggled to come to terms with new shock
absorbers and an upgraded
aerodynamic package, and teammate
Elfyn Evans cleared the day in seventh and eighth respectively, while
Craig Breen completed the day in ninth overall in another
C3. Championship leader
Thierry Neuville, who failed to make up yesterday's lost time, completed the leaderboard in tenth place.
Sunday Ott Tänak took his second rally victory of the season with a
Power Stage win in Finland to gain a maximum thirty points after a master-class performance.
Mads Østberg edged
Jari-Matti Latvala by only 2.8 seconds to finish second overall.
Hayden Paddon completed the rally in fourth place after defending rally winner
Esapekka Lappi went off in SS20.
Sébastien Ogier climbed up to fifth place after
Ford gave another
team order to
Teemu Suninen, who was ordered to check in late at a time control so that he was given a 20-second time penalty and dropped behind his five-time world champion teammate in sixth.
Elfyn Evans finished in seventh in another
Fiesta, followed by
Craig Breen in eighth. Championship leader
Thierry Neuville ended his rally ahead of his teammate
Andreas Mikkelsen in ninth place. Despite an unsatisfied outcome, he still leads the championship by twenty-one points over the defending world champion. ==Classification==