Kiwi Hayden Paddon is well on his way to taking his third straight with in the P-WRC this year. Local hero Mikko Pajunen is absolutely flying in his Renault Clio R3, 54 secs behind Paddon in his Impreza. Third is Patrick Flodin, who has suffered a severe dose of bad luck today, breaking his suspension & losing his brakes. He sits over a minute off the lead.
“I struggled to adapt at the start of the day but it got much better and the car felt really good. We were on tyre management mode this afternoon and it’s good to be leading. But there is till a long way to go and it’s going to be tough tomorrow.” Paddon said.
British Rally Championship regular Jarkko Nikara, who is driving in the place of Anders Grondal, began the day with half a second in hand over Flodin. Nikara couldn't capitalise on his lead, brake problems putting the car on it's side. Flodin took the lead, but broke the suspension, which allowed Paddon into the lead, and later brake problems dropped him to third. He is now only 0.3 secs ahead of Jari Ketomäki.
Flodin said: “We thought it was steering at first but it’s a problem with the suspension. It’s very frustrating because this is my favourite rally and I really wanted to win here.”
Nikara is sixth overnight, with Michal Kosciuszko almost 45 secs ahead: “The morning didn’t start too well. We lost the brakes at the end of stage four and rolled the car onto the side. We had to wait for spectators to come and push us back on the road and we lost two minutes. It was a shame. Then I had an overshoot on stage six and had big tyre wear on stage nine.”
Joint Championship leader Martin Semerad's car caught fire this morning, forcing his retirement from the rally.
(Academy)
Just like the guys at the top, the WRC Academy is in for a close fight between Championship leader Egon Kaur and rally leader Craig Breen, with only 2.4 secs separating the pair.
Kaur started the day fourth, 29 secs behind then-leader Alastair Fisher. Fisher crashed out of the rally on SS7, which handed Kaur the lead. Not wanting to risk an accident and lose points, Kaur backed off and put up no challenge to the flying Breen, who made some damper changes in service & took the lead on SS11, the day's final stage.
“It was okay today with no issues. The car was working well, but I don’t want to risk making any mistakes. When I lost my rhythm a bit on stage 11 I decided to back off.” said Kaur.
The rest of the Academy drivers are all well spaced out, with Brendan Reeves the best of the rest in third, 1 min 12 secs behind Breen. Timo van der Marel took a crest too fast on SS6, but still sits fourth. Fifth is Miguel Baldoni, while sixth is Andrea Crugnola, who crashed into a ditch on SS9. Rounding out the Top 10 is Christian Riedemann, Yerey Lemes, Jan Cerny and Miko-Ove Niinimae.
Viktor Henriksson was the first of the front-running retirements. He rolled his Fiesta into retirement on SS6. He will not restart tomorrow. Alastair Fisher crashed out on the next stage, and Fredrik Ahlin followed suit, crashing out also on SS7.
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