Lappi leads the competition by a margin of 10.2 seconds over Lauri Joona. Lappi, who took his opening victory of the season in Mikkeli a couple of weeks ago, was reasonably satisfied with his performance on Friday.
“We’ll try to sleep and eat well next. I’m quite happy with today. There have been no problems with the car, but it could be pushed a bit harder already with future rallies in mind. We’ll see what the feeling is like tomorrow, whether to go a notch faster,” said Lappi, who competes in the Rally Sweden WRC event with Hyundai’s Rally1 car.
Third in the SM1 class after Friday’s six special stages is last year’s winner Tuukka Kauppinen, who is 17.1 seconds behind the leader. Kauppinen moved past Mikko Heikkilä on the final Mäntyvaara spectator stage by a margin of 2.1 seconds.
In fifth place in the SM rally is Roope Korhonen, who lost time on Friday morning at Mäntyvaara. The gap to the lead is 43.9 seconds. In sixth position is Estonian rising star Jaspar Vaher, just under ten seconds behind Korhonen.
Leading the overall classification is Toyota WRC star Elfyn Evans, who is testing at the Arctic Circle ahead of the Rally Sweden WRC round to be held in a couple of weeks’ time. Evans was at least satisfied with Friday’s running.
“It’s been a good day overall. It’s great to get back out and do some more driving tomorrow. We’ll have to see what we can learn from tomorrow,” Evans said.
The Tunturi Rally concludes on Saturday with six special stages.
Arctic Lapland Rally standings after SS6/12:
| POS. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | 48:08.5 |
| 2. | Esapekka Lappi | Skoda | +1:47.5 |
| 3. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +1:58.2 |
| 4. | Tuukka Kauppinen | Toyota | +2:04.6 |
| 5. | Mikko Heikkilä | Skoda | +2:06.7 |
| 6. | Roope Korhonen | Toyota | +2:31.4 |
| 7. | Jaspar Vaher | Toyota | +2:40.6 |
| 8. | Niclas Grönholm | Skoda | +2:45.5 |
| 9. | Patrick Enok | Skoda | +3:10.7 |
