At the end of Friday, Kalle Rovanpera is now leading Rally Estonia with Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi following him.
Kalle Rovanpera moved ahead of Thierry Neuville at the end of Stage 6 as he was the fastest driver in SS5 and SS6 while he had a big slide in SS8.
The Belgian driver lost his advantage over Rovanpera as he was slower than the reigning WRC Champion when the rain came in SS6. Moreover, he reported understeer on the entry and oversteer in the ruts in SS6 while he faced a problem with the brakes towards the end of SS7. Finally, it is noteworthy that Neuville fought for the first place since the last stage of the day and completed 0,2 seconds slower than Rovanpera in SS8.
Esapekka Lappi completes the 2-3 for Hyundai Motorsport and stole the third place from Elfyn Evans at the end of SS7. Their gap was at one second on the first two stages of the afternoon loop as both of them set an identical time in Stage 6.
Evans was slower than Lappi in almost all afternoon stages of Friday as he did not feel comfortable to push with the Yaris considering the fact that he was starting second on the road.
Teemu Suninen remains fifth overall and was struggling with ruts and lost the front a few times in Stage 6. It must be mentioned that he was the only WRC driver that he faced rainy conditions since the beginning of SS6.
Pierre-Louis Loubet overtook Takamoto Katsuta on the classification after SS5 and is now in sixth position while he was the third fastest driver on the penultimate stage of the day.
Ott Tanak's domination in stages stopped by Rovanpera, but the M-Sport driver responded and set the fastest time in SS7 and SS8. Finally, he had two bid slides in Stage 6.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS8:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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