Necessary by and for the show, Rally Finland has started with the ‘Harju’ super special stage, a first section that serves to whet your appetite before the real competition that will start tomorrow at the very first hour. A mixed section, divided between a section of land in a park in Jyväskylä and the asphalt of its streets that has served to Thierry Neuville is the first leader in Finland. Scratch and sleep with good feelings. Ott Tänak has escorted his partner to sign Hyundai’s 1-2.
The ‘Harju’ super special did not have much history, even if, as is traditional, it has a mixed route, with a section of land in one of the green areas of the city and another of asphalt in the surrounding streets. With everything, Thierry Neuville left his mark with a scratch that is enough to be the first leader, something that is common in the case of the Belgian in this type of stage that opens the WRC events. In fact, the Hyundai driver is quite a specialist in these super specials. Today he has endorsed his teammate Ott Tänak by 1.2 seconds.
Despite having a slight problem with the hybrid system of his car, Takamoto Katsuta has scored the third fastest time of the section after finishing 2.6 seconds behind the leader and beating his teammate Kalle Rovanperä by just one tenth. The ‘top 5’ has been completed by Elfyn Evans, winner of this rally last year, although basically he has signed a shared fifth place. In fact, Jari Huttunen has signed the same time as Evanswhich is not without merit in his first competitive stage with the Ford Puma Rally1, even though it was a super special.
As if it were necessary to finish in tables, behind both was Oliver Solberg in a triple tie with Esapekka Lappi and Pierre-Louis Loubet. Each one with a car, but at the end of the stage with the same time after being 3.8 seconds behind the reference time. With the performance of these three drivers, Adrien Fourmaux was relegated to tenth position after narrowly beating Craig Breen and Gus Greensmith, drivers with different ambitions in this rally, but who have left a very discreet image in ‘Harju’.
Looking at the silver category, the first leader in WRC2 is the Polish Mikolaj Marczyk after setting a time of 2:50.5 and beat the Finnish Sami Pajari by six tenths. The local hero and reigning Junior WRC champion enjoyed himself during this super special and managed to finish ahead of the likes of Hayden Paddon and Teemu Suninen. For its part, the also Finnish Lauri Joona starts the rally at the head of the WRC3 category after beating Jan Cerny by just four tenths.
Classification after SS1 of the 71st Rally Finland
Rally Finland continues this Friday (07:00 a.m.) with the dispute of the first complete stage of the test. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 124.91 kilometers against the clock.
Photos: hyundai motorsport