Tanak fastest in WRC Rally Finland opener
4th August 2023Following a hard time in his home rally, last time out, M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak grabbed the early lead after he secured the win In Thursday’s opening super-special stage.
Tanak put in the fastest time on the board, in front of fans who gathered around the opening, mixed-surfaced, Harju super special stage in Jyväskylä. On the double-looped stage, which saw drivers tackle a mix of paved, gravel and asphalt surfaces, Tanak put in a quick time of two-minute and 39 seconds to go six-tenths faster than Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Toyota’s championship leader, Kalle Rovanpera made it equal across the top three with his third-place finish after the opening stage of his home event. This meant Ford lead the way ahead of Hyundai and Toyota, inside the top three respectively.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi led the best of the rest in fourth place, in his home rally too, 1.8 seconds behind the Estonian’s leading pace as Toyota’s Elfyn Evans rounded out the top five.
Of the regular WRC runners, Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet led the bottom 10 in sixth place ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen in seventh and eighth respectively. Toyota’s guest-entry of Jari-Matti Latvala completed the WRC class with his ninth-place finish, 8.1s behind Tanak.
In conclusion to the top 10, Jari Huttunen occupied 10th place in the overall standing to lead the WRC2 category ahead of Nikolay Gryazin and Andreas Mikkelsen respectively.
That’s all for the article; Tanak fastest in WRC Rally Finland opener!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC 2023 Rally Finland: Preview
- WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia
- Rally Estonia: Rovanpera takes control of rally 3-seconds ahead of Neuville
- Rally Estonia: Tanak fastest on Thursday opener despite penalty
- Tanak to start Rally Estonia with five-minute penalty
- WRC2: Greensmith secures win in Portugal after Solberg penalty
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
