This time the intrigue of the race was the Toyota crews chasing Ott Tänak. He had been in the lead since Friday morning, but at the end of the day he was only 3.8 seconds behind Esapekka Lappi. The Hyundai driver’s main pursuer on Saturday was general classification leader Calle Rovanper, who had lost time the day before as he was the first to go to the gravel stages.
As the day went on, the Finn nearly crashed his car twice, but climbed from fourth place to second, stopping 8.3 seconds behind Tänak. Sunday’s four specials would decide everything.
Ott was the fastest on the first of them, the second finished in a tie, and Calle took the lead on the third. Now, before the decisive stage – where, in addition, bonus points were awarded – the rivals were separated by exactly ten seconds.
Rovanpera stayed second and Lappi finished third, even though he flipped during the penultimate stage: the Toyota driver fell into a ditch in a fast turn, made three flips, smashed his windows and radiator.
Despite this, the car was able to keep going and lost only 18 seconds. True, the crew had to stop at a nearby pond and add water to the cooling system, but such an outcome of the accident should still be considered great luck.
Elfyn Evans was the best of those, who doesn’t represent Scandinavia or Baltics. He confirmed the Toyota’s speed with a fourth result, although he lost time on Saturday due to a suspension failure.