Esapekka Lappi rocketed into the Guanajuato Rally México lead on Friday morning as a number of frontrunners, together with championship chief Ott Tänak, bumped into hassle.
The Finn, who held third place in a single day, turned embroiled in a morning-long scrap with six-time Mexico winner Sébastien Ogier, ending the loop simply 1.4sec forward of the Toyota Gazoo Racing part-timer earlier than the phases are repeated this afternoon.
Lappi, driving a Hyundai i20 N, climbed to the pinnacle of the leaderboard with the benchmark time for El Chocolate, passing in a single day chief Ott Tänak within the course of because the Estonian nursed a failed turbocharger on his M-Sport Ford Puma.
Whereas Ogier was in a position to regain a couple of tenths in the course of the Ortega take a look at, Lappi made it two stage wins out of three with a plucky run via Las Minas, which preceded the mid-leg service.
“I’ve to be glad with this,” Lappi mentioned of his morning. “Séb [Ogier] has gained this rally so many occasions and we are able to match his tempo, so I must be very happy with that.
“The driving is rarely good and there have been a couple of locations the place I misplaced a couple of tenths right here and there. There may be room for enchancment, so let’s strive to do this within the afternoon.”
Tänak’s possibilities of scoring his second victory of the season now look nearly not possible. He languishes greater than 12 minutes adrift of the highest spot after limping via the morning with minimal energy. His team-mates Pierre-Louis Loubet and Jourdan Serderidis additionally confronted their share of issues within the opener. Each needed to retire as a consequence of suspension harm, marking a disastrous begin to the rally for the British staff.
In third place, and avoiding the drama to this point, is Ogier’s Yaris colleague Elfyn Evans. The Welshman ended the loop 11.1sec adrift of the runner-up spot, with Dani Sordo solely 0.6sec additional again regardless of struggling to maintain his Hyundai within the clear line.
Thierry Neuville’s hybrid unit failed when he hit a compression in Ortega, leaving his i20 N down on energy within the excessive altitudes. He arrived at service 10.1sec down on Sordo however 6.0sec away from sixth-placed Kalle Rovanperä, whose Toyota suffered the same fault.
Takamoto Katsuta retired from seventh general after going off the street in a high-speed part of Las Minas. He misplaced management of his Yaris’s rear finish, sliding down a steep embankment.
Emil Lindholm, the defending WRC2 champion, leads his class in a Toksport WRT2-entered Škoda Fabia Evo and holds seventh general forward of Gus Greensmith in a Škoda Fabia RS, whereas Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford WRT Fiesta MkII) and Oliver Solberg (Škoda Fabia RS) spherical out the highest 10.
Within the battle for FIA WRC3 glory, Paraguay’s Diego Dominguez leads Masters Cup entrant Jason Bailey from Canada by 56sec, each in a Ford Fiesta Rally3.
