Toyota had a very strong start. Elfyn Evans set the fastest time, but teammate Kalle Rovanperä was only 1.1 seconds behind.
Between the two, Sebastien Ogier also managed to sneak in. The veteran was just 0.4 seconds off the pace.
“Quite okay. It seems it’s really slippy and quite a lot of mud from the cuts. Today, it’s quite good to be in the front. It was not an easy stage, but clean one,” Rovanperä commented.
Hyundai faced problems. Thierry Neuville was the fifth fastest on Friday’s opening stage, but he was four seconds off the fastest time. Behind him, Esapekka Lappi was 4.6 seconds behind the leader.
Hyundai’s settings seemed to be off for the prevailing conditions, and the clock wasn’t favourable.
“I won’t go into details, but the car is not the best right now,” Lappi lamented.
Sami Pajari, driving Toyota’s Rally1 car for the first time, had a lot of action. He was very close to going off the road a couple of times and slightly damaged his rear wing by hitting a ditch. Pajari was ninth on the opening stage and already 17.8 seconds behind the leader.
“Just really tricky. I don’t know where I am. We can keep going, it’s fine. We need to see what happened,” Pajari wondered at the stage finish.
In the overall standings, Sebastien Ogier moved into the lead. Rovanperä is one second behind him and Evans is 1.4 seconds behind. Toyota currently holds the top four positions, with Takamoto Katsuta in fourth. Neuville breaks Toyota’s ranks in fifth place. Esapekka Lappi is seventh, 5.9 seconds off the lead. Sami Pajari’s gap to the lead is already over 20 seconds at this stage.
Rally Finland will have eight more special stages on Friday. The competition will end on Sunday.
Rally Finland standings after SS 1/20
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sebastien Ogier | Toyota | 11:23.3 |
| 2. | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | +1.0 |
| 3. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +1.4 |
| 4. | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +1.8 |
| 5. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +2.2 |
| 6. | Ott Tänak | Hyundai | +5.0 |
| 7. | Esapekka Lappi | Hyundai | +5.9 |
| 8. | Adrien Fourmaux | Ford | +12.9 |
| 9. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +20.6 |
| 10. | Gregoire Munster | Ford | +26.7 |
| 11. | Oliver Solberg | Skoda | +37.1 |
| 12. | Nikolay Gryazin | Skoda | +44.6 |
Rally Finland Itinerary
Thursday 1 August 10:01 Shakedown: Ruuhimäki (4.12 km) 19:05 SS1: Harju 1 (3.48 km) Friday 2 August 08:13 SS2: Laukaa 1 (17.96 km) 09:20 SS3: Saarikas 1 (15.93 km) 10:35 SS4: Myhinpää 1 (15.51 km) 12:05 SS5: Ruuhimäki 1 (7.76 km) 15:10 SS6: Laukaa 2 (17.96 km) 16:17 SS7: Saarikas 2 (15.93 km) 17:32 SS8: Myhinpää 2 (15.51 km) 19:05 SS9: Ruuhimäki 2 (7.76 km) 20:05 SS10: Harju 2 (3.48 km) Saturday 3 August 09:05 SS11: Västilä 1 (18.94 km) 10:05 SS12: Päijälä 1 (20.19 km) 11:05 SS13: Ouninpohja 1 (32.98 km) 15:35 SS14: Västilä 2 (18.94 km) 16:35 SS15: Päijälä 2 (20.19 km) 17:35 SS16: Ouninpohja 2 (32.98 km) Sunday 4 August 08:55 SS17: Sahloinen-Moksi 1 (14.27 km) 10:05 SS18: Laajavuori 1 (4.35 km) 11:17 SS19: Sahloinen-Moksi 2 (14.27 km) 13:15 SS20: Laajavuori 2 (8.77 km)
