Onto Saturday then and there were 126 kilometres over eight stages for the crews to tackle. Jon and Shane returned to the action and would open the road throughout the day. What would the day hold?

 

Well, it was straight into the action with SS11 Parkkola 1 and Elfyn was the pacesetter, going fastest from Sami and Seb. The Welshman had nibbled a few seconds from Seb’s lead which was encouraging, bringing the gap down to thirteen seconds. Sami who held third overall also closed the gap a little. There was a change in positions in the lower top ten as Takamoto passed Josh for seventh overall.

 

The second of the four stages in the morning loop was SS12 Päijälä 1 and Sami set the pace from Seb and Elfyn this time. All the drivers said how much they’d enjoyed this particular stage. Further back, Adrien was focusing on closing the gap to Martins who held fifth overall and the Frenchman reduced the gap by almost seven seconds to the Latvian.

 

Sami made it two in a row, going fastest in SS13 Västilä 1 from Elfyn and Seb as the top three continued their front running pace. Meanwhile the fight between Martins in fifth and Adrien in sixth the Latvian kept the time loss to a minimum, only losing 1.7 seconds and the gap was now twelve seconds.

 

The final stage then before the lunchtime service break, SS14 Leustu 1 and Seb was fastest from Sami and Takamoto, but this was not the whole story of the stage. Firstly, Martins crashed out of the stage at around 1.6 kilometres into the stage and they were out for the day. Jon who was opening the road had a wide moment but managed to finish the stage. Finally, Elfyn, who’d almost finished the stage ran wide, dropping the left rear into a ditch which sent the car into a triple roll, finally finishing on it’s wheels. The car was still running, and he got going again, only to drive forwards into the ditch. The spectators who amazingly included Elfyn’s dad came to help out, getting the Yaris out from the ditch and Gwyndaf directed his son to the best exit from the field, back onto the stage and he’d lost almost two minutes, yet was still holding fifth place. Oliver was the one to benefit moving into third overall.

After the service break came SS15 Parkkola 2 and Sami was fastest from Elfyn who’s car had been rebuilt during service and Oliver Rally leader Seb was fourth and maintained a good lead of just over twenty seconds. Elfyn who of course was fifth but eyeing up Adrien’s fourth position closed the gap to the Frenchman, now just a little over six seconds back.

 

Onto SS16 Päijälä 2 and it was another stage win for Seb by just two tenths of a second from Elfyn whilst Sami was third fastest. Elfyn’s pace had edged closer to Adrien, the gap now just over four seconds. Meanwhile Josh was doing the best to keep Thierry behind him as the Belgian was edging closer for seventh place.

 

There was huge drama at the end of SS17 Västilä 2 though, after Sami, Elfyn and Oliver had already finished the stage and held the top three fastest times. Seb sadly crashed out of the lead at just over 18 kilometres into the 19-kilometre stage. The stage was red flagged, and a helicopter was brought in to take Seb to hospital. This all meant that now Sami was leading from Oliver, whilst Adrien was up to third, yet Elfyn was on the same overall time as the Hyundai driver.

 

The final stage of the day then, SS18 Leustu 2 and Elfyn was fastest from Sami and Oliver, The Welshman’s pace took him into third overall as Adrien’s hold on the position came to an end after just one stage. The other Hyundai crew Thierry and Martijn were moving up though as they passed Josh for what was now sixth place.

 

Let’s hear from the drivers and take a look at the top twn.

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Sami Pajari

“It has been a crazy day with a lot of different things happening, and suddenly we find ourselves in the lead tonight. The morning was really enjoyable; I was having maybe the best time that I’ve ever had behind the wheel of a rally car, driving these beautiful stages with the best car in the world. After Elfyn’s roll we moved up to second and thought the gap to Seb was too much to catch, so I just tried to keep enjoying and keep some flow in my driving. Then Seb went off, and the most important thing is that both he and Julien are OK. It shows that things can change very quickly, and we still have two stages to do tomorrow, so nothing is decided yet.”

Oliver Solberg

“My feeling was good in the first stage this morning, but I had some issues hearing my pacenotes in the next one. The gap to those in front became a bit too big and I didn’t want to take too much risk, so the plan was to try and preserve our position and see what happens. Then Elfyn had his roll and later Seb and Julien went off – I’m glad that they are both OK. Tomorrow will be a new day and a new fight, and we’ll do the best we can to secure some valuable points.”

Elfyn Evans

“Today started pretty well with a good feeling in the car. Unfortunately, we got caught out in the last stage of the morning, running a bit wide into a ditch and rolling multiple times. A huge thanks to the team who did an incredible job to put the car right in service; it was brilliant all afternoon and that allowed us to fight and gain back positions. The main target was fourth, and that became third after what happened to Seb and Julien; I want to wish all the best to them this evening. Tomorrow we’ll be trying our best like always.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“Today’s stages were very challenging, and you needed big commitment and confidence. After the time lost yesterday, our main focus was on trying some different things with the car setup. It’s hard to find a big step forward, but the times in the afternoon were not too bad. Hopefully what we found can work well tomorrow and we’ll try to get some more points. I feel sorry for what happened to Seb and Julien and I’m glad to hear they are OK.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Adrien Fourmaux

“It’s been a bit of a crazy day for us, with a lot of drama on the stages. We started in sixth, were fourth by midday, then made it into podium positions before losing it again. I have no regrets though, I gave everything I had in the afternoon loop, but the later cars were able to go much faster and we lost third to Elfyn. Even so, I am really pleased with today. I felt good in the car, so let’s see what is possible tomorrow. It won’t be easy with a 3.8-second gap to Elfyn, but our target is to find some more speed than him.”

Thierry Neuville

“It has been a long day for us, with not much for us to play for. We wanted to catch two positions – Taka and Josh – but in the end we could only manage to overtake Josh with a push on the final stage, which was definitely the nicest of the day. It was the maximum we could do as we look ahead to tomorrow, where hopefully we can score some Super Sunday points. It will be difficult, as we have seen today that the cleaning makes a difference, and running at the front we struggle for grip, but it is important we take as many points as possible from a challenging weekend.”

 

Classification after Day Two

1	S. Pajari	M. Salminen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	2:00:38.0
2	O. Solberg	E. Edmondson	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+46.4
3	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+1:36.3
4	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+1:40.1
5	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+2:54.5
6	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+3:52.9
7	J. McErlean	E. Treacy	Ford Puma Rally1	+3:54.4
8	J-M. Latvala	J. Hänninen	Toyota GR Yaris	+6:50.8
9	T. Suninen	J. Hussi	Toyota GR Yaris	+7:01.1
10	R. Virves	J. Viilo	Skoda Fabia RS	+7:04.2

Sunday

The final day will see Martins and Renars return to the action after the M-Sport team rebuilt the Puma in four hours. They will therefore open the road on the final two stages which are thirty kilometres in length. Will there be any final drama in them?