The Friday of the Swedish World Rally took a dramatic turn at the Floda special test. Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä stopped, Adrian Fourmaux narrowly avoided the crash.
Pertti Lappalainen,
Micke Suopuro
The events of the Swedish World Rally Championship are followed in this article.
Floda 1, the longest special stage of the Swedish World Rally Championship, offered crucial events for the rally this year as well. Estonian driver Ott Tänak had to stop as a result of a driving error. Tänak drove into a bank at a high speed and the car plowed a lot of snow.
– A little bit too much speed. In the Swedish rally, the area on the road is really narrow. If the tires get out of the bridge, there will be a rough slide. The stern went under and hit the bank, which would absorb the bow there, ‘s expert Henri Haapamäki analyzes Tänak’s exit.
– The cylinder broke and it was too much to continue with the hybrid and you couldn’t see anything out of the car, Haapamäki continues.
When Tänak slowly moved forward after the situation, the Ford driver behind him Adrien Fourmaux was close to crashing at really high speed Even today behind the Hyundai.
In the left turn, Tänak was able to move his car just enough to the right side of the road so that Fourmaux could pass Tänak on the inside. You can look at the situation from the main picture of the story. In the end, Tänak’s journey ended in interruption.
At the finish line, Fourmaux thanked Tänak for driving his car as far as he could. This saved the situation from a crash.
As the trip progressed, we also received news that was unpleasant for Finns, when it turned out that Kalle Rovanperä had to interrupt the rally during a special test. Thus, the dreams of winning the Swedish rally were dashed by the end of Friday morning. After a while, there was no certainty as to what had happened to Rovanperä.
The reigning world champion Toyota was seen Esapekka Lapin stopped on the side of the road in the car camera images.
The longest special stage of the rally, almost 30 kilometers long, had really challenging conditions due to the wet plus weather. According to Haapamäki, this affected the drivers’ performance on the track.
– There was sheltered weather on the stretch when it was on the plus side. The roads had recently been plowed, the permanent layer of ice had gone and sand had emerged. The sand was also soft, not ice, where the grip is still good. He suffered from it in particular Thierry Neuvillewho lost more than 20 seconds, Haapamäki reminded.
As a result of a dramatic special test, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta rose to the top of the rally. The Japanese driver clocked a record time of 0.7 seconds ahead of his teammate Elfyn Evans.
Lappi lost 10.5 seconds to Katsuta, but rose to second place in the rally after the interruptions. The difference to the top is 11.4 seconds before Friday’s evening section.
– We hit the bank pretty hard, maybe around ten kilometers. I saw Tänak and Kalle stopped, it didn’t create confidence. The time is really bad, Lappi blew the whistle at the finish line.
Lappi set the record time for Friday’s second special test. Rovanperä was leading the rally before his suspension, but was not satisfied with his driving after EK 3. He lost 1.2 seconds to Lapland, who ran the fastest time.
– The ride was terrible, embarrassing. I was just shitty, I have to drive better, Rovanperä burst out at the finish line.
The Rovanperä rally ended with the next special test.
1. Takamoto Katsuta Toyota 28.05,6
2. Esapekka Lappi Hyundai + 11.4
3. Elfyn Evans Toyota + 13.3
4. Adrien Fourmaux Ford + 18.7
5. Thierry Neuville Hyundai + 40.5
6. Oliver Solberg Skoda + 1.09,2 rally2
7. Sami Pajari Toyota + 1.28,9 rally2
8. Georg Linnamäe Toyota + 1.30,0 rally2
Listen to Henri Haapamää’s summary of the events of the dramatic Friday morning.