Juho Hanninen leads the S-WRC class in his Red Bull Skoda by a comfortable 1 min 17 secs over Martin Prokop. Hermann Gassner Jr. in the other Red Bull Skoda is third, but 3 mins 39.8 secs off his team-mate's red-hot pace.
“We had no problems today but it was shame for Ott because it was a good fight. It’s quite difficult now because it’s important not to take any risks and to stay concentrated.” Hanninen said.
Day 2 began with Tanak holding 8.5 secs over Hanninen. Hanninen summonsed some 'sisu' and took a full complement of fastest stage times over the first loop to take the lead going to the first remote service of the day. Tanak struck back, going quickest over SS7. SS8, Koivukehä, proved the young Estonian's undoing, spinning and stalling the Fiesta S2000. It took over three mins to restart the car, dropping him to fifth. Tanak's bad luck continued on the very next stage, but this time it was less severe.
“We had a spin and it took something like four hours to restart the engine. Then I had another spin on the next stage. It’s been frustrating today.” said the Estonian.
Away from the fight for first earlier on in the day, Martin Prokop's intercom wouldn't work properly on SS6, resulting in him not being able to hear the pacenotes being called out be co-driver Jan Tománek. He was forced to slow a little so he could keep the Fiesta on the road, and encountered some spectators crossing the stage as he came over a crest. Third overnight is Gassner Jr., who is taking at an easier pace as he gets comfortable with the Finnish stages.
Fifth behind Tanak is Frigyes Turan, who's Fiesta S2000 began misfiring during the morning. He sits 3 mins 15 secs behind Hanninen. Sixth is Bernardo Sousa, who is clawing back time lost with differential failure yesterday.
8 mins off the lead is Karl Kruuda in his front-wheel drive Fiesta S2000. He car's rear duff broke 5kms into SS4, and he has not been able to fit a replacement. Because of this, he has driven in front-wheel drive for almost 130kms of special stages, and almost 500kms of road sections.
“We had no moments but it isn’t very nice to drive with only two-wheel drive for nearly all of the day. I’m really fed up with the technical failures because I’ve had them on every SWRC event this year. I just want to drive.”
Juha Salo's Mitsubishi Lancer R4 moved into eighth place after Eyvind Byrnildsen crashed out.
(P-WRC & Academy reports to follow)
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