Sébastien Ogier braved extremely changeable conditions at Rally Finland and finished Friday's stage in the lead.
A near-flawless performance saw him gain a 16,3-second lead over current championship leader Elfyn Evans. Ogier and his old co-driver Julien Ingrassia won three of the four morning forest stages, and successfully navigated heavy downpours, puddles and drastically reduced visibility around Jyväskylä in the afternoon.
The weather changes completely changed the order of the day. Evans took advantage of this, moving up from fifth to second place. Home teammate Sami Pajari finished Friday in third place, 26,7 seconds behind his Toyota teammate (TGR).
Although Adrien Fourmaux had a 1,2-second lead over Ogier at the start of the day, the Frenchman quickly took the initiative with a great ride on the Laukaa stage. He followed up his success with wins on the Sydänmaa and Hoho stages, building a lead of over five seconds over Fourmaux by the midday break, with Pajari a further 2,7 seconds behind.
The afternoon initially looked to be a tight three-way battle. Pajari reduced Ogier's lead to just 5,4 seconds with a win on the second pass through Laukaa, but then the arrival of the Saarikas stage brought heavy rain, which completely turned the course of the race around.
Evans, who had the thankless task of opening the track, avoided the worst of the downpour and set the fastest time. For the drivers behind him, the situation worsened significantly: Fourmaux lost almost a minute and a half, and Solberg's Toyota was flooded, costing him more than 55 seconds. Ogier managed to mitigate the damage; he lost 6,5 seconds, but most importantly, he was only a little over two seconds slower than his closest pursuer, Pajari. Ogier commented on the situation pragmatically: “Sometimes it's just like that with the weather, but compared to Sami, we did great.”
The drama continued on the Sydänmaa stage. Although Ogier narrowly avoided a ditch, he was still half a minute faster than Pajari, who could not see the road due to a faulty fan and a completely fogged-up windscreen. With a balanced risk, Ogier successfully navigated the final forest stage and Thursday's super special (Harju) and confidently held on to the lead. He admitted that the day had been great, but the afternoon was extremely demanding and probably not very pleasant for anyone.
Elfyn Evans' second place was a great achievement, as he had to open the road all day. Despite a minor trip off the track on the first pass through Hoho, he made the most of the weather conditions and overtook Pajari. The Welshman said that the morning was pretty good for them, but the afternoon was a real lottery.
Sami Pajari remains in the podium places, but admitted that his hopes of the final victory were floating on water when he could not see anything due to a ventilation failure. Fourth place is currently occupied by Oliver Solberg, who has caught up after the afternoon's problems and is a good 40 seconds behind the leader. Mārtiņš Sesks (the highest-placed M-Sport Ford driver) fought his way out of the chaos to fifth place, while Fourmaux fell to sixth due to the downpour. Seventh is Josh McErlean, who was also troubled by fogged windows.
It was a “disastrous day” for Takamoto Katsuta, who finished eighth, just ahead of Thierry Neuville. The Belgian crashed into a hidden rock in the morning, damaging the left front suspension of his Hyundai, which cost him almost three minutes.
Friday also saw some significant retirements. Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) damaged his roll cage in an accident and will not continue, while Jon Armstrong got stuck in a ditch with his Ford Puma. The riders will face another 123,3 kilometers of time trial on Saturday, with two passes through the stages of Parkola, Päijälä, Västilä and Leustu.
