Rally Finland - 2nd Day - 2nd Loop: Evans seizes Finland lead as Rovanpera rolls out [+photo, video]

At the end of Friday afternoon, Elfyn Evans is the new leader of Rally Finland with Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta following him.

Elfyn Evans remained out of trouble throughout all the stages today and became the new Rally Finland leader after his teammate's retirement in Stage 8. However, Neuville was the quickest driver in SS10 and managed to cut Evans's gap from 9,8 to 6,9 seconds heading to Saturday.

Thierry Neuville overtook Takamoto Katsuta in SS8 and climbed second overall as he set the fastest time in SS8 and SS9. However, he said at the end of SS6 that he had no grip and was struggling with the traction while he lost his third place at the end of SS7 when he slowed down and stopped at the yellow signs after his facing problem the wipers. Finally, he claimed another superspecial stage win despite the fact that the second gear was stuck on the first hairpin and had to push the clutch to get the speed.

Takamoto Katsuta completes the 1-3 for Toyota and had a joint gap with Neuville at the end of SS6 while he was beaten by Rovanpera for 0,2 seconds in Laukaa. He won the battle with the Belgian in Stage 7 and was ahead of the last one for 0,6 seconds, but he slipped behind Neuville after SS8 as Taka was unable to catch his rival's times.

Teemu Suninen is in fourth place overall and was the third-fastest driver on the opening stage of the afternoon loop while his target is to increase his pace with the intention of getting into the podium positions.

Jari-Matti Latvala is the latest Rally1 driver and completes the top five as totally we had four retirements at the main category of WRC.

Kalle Rovanpera increased his lead over Evans by setting the fastest time on the first two stages of Friday afternoon, but he rolled his Yaris 11,1 Km into SS8 after getting out of shape in a right-hander. In fact, his Yaris was stuck on its roof for some minutes and the following duo had to slow down. The positive news is that he and Jonne Halttunen are okay.