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Arctic WRC: Tanak extends lead with double stage wins

Ott Tanak has extended his lead in the Arctic Rally, round two of the World Rally Championship, after claiming two wins out of the three stages on the morning loop in his Hyundai.

Watch: Arctic Rally Finland: Highlights Stages 3-5

The Estonian now holds a 23.6-second advantage over the Toyota of Kalle Rovanpera, who has passed the Hyundai of Craig Breen for second place overall.

Britain’s Elfyn Evans, lying fifth, won the second stage of the day in his Toyota to keep the pressure on the fourth place Hyundai of Thierry Neuville.

Teenage Swedish driver Oliver Solberg holds sixth place in his first-ever appearance at the wheel of a full WRC car, driving a 2020-spec Hyundai and keeping in front of the 2021-spec Toyotas of Takamoto Katsuta and defending champion Sebastien Ogier. The M-Sport Ford Fiestas of Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith complete the top 10.

“In the end a good morning, yes, but very, very demanding,” said Tanak. “The stages are incredibly fast and at that speed, never seeing the roads, the pacenotes are never 100% and you always have places where it’s a bit this way or the other way… so far so good!”

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In WRC2, the return of former M-Sport driver Esapekka Lappi in a VW has seen the Finn build a 33s advantage over Norwegian championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen’s Skoda, having won all five of the stages run so far.

The battle for WRC3 honours is currently separated by just 3.3s, the advantage with Finnish driver Teemu Asunmaa’s Skoda ahead of Estonia’s Egon Kaur in his VW.

The same loop of three stages will be repeated this afternoon with large sections of snow expected to have been scrubbed away by the passage of the cars to expose underlying gravel.

Successfully balancing the demands of pace and tyre management is therefore expected to be at a premium to reach the end of the day safely.

Cla Driver/Codriver Car Total Time Gap Interval
1 Estonia Ott Tanak
Estonia Martin Jarveoja
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 1:07'28.000
2 Finland Kalle Rovanperä
Finland Jonne Halttunen
Toyota Yaris WRC 1:07'51.600 23.600 23.600
3 Ireland Craig Breen
Ireland Paul Nagle
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 1:07'56.900 28.900 5.300
4 Belgium Thierry Neuville
Belgium Martijn Wydaeghe
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 1:08'02.700 34.700 5.800
5 United Kingdom Elfyn Evans
United Kingdom Scott Martin
Toyota Yaris WRC 1:08'05.300 37.300 2.600
6 Norway Oliver Solberg
United Kingdom Sebastian Marshall
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC 1:08'19.300 51.300 14.000
7 Japan Takamoto Katsuta
United Kingdom Daniel Barritt
Toyota Yaris WRC 1:08'20.400 52.400 1.100
8 France Sébastien Ogier
France Julien Ingrassia
Toyota Yaris WRC 1:08'22.200 54.200 1.800
9 Finland Teemu Suninen
Finland Mikko Markkula
Ford Fiesta WRC 1:08'38.900 1'10.900 16.700
10 United Kingdom Gus Greensmith
United Kingdom Elliott Edmondson
Ford Fiesta WRC 1:09'20.100 1'52.100 41.200

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Previous article Rallying great Hannu Mikkola dies aged 78
Next article Arctic WRC: Hyundai’s Tanak dominates as Ogier retires

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