WRC: Tanak takes Finland opener before marathon rally | Life

28 Jul 2017

Image: AFP / Heikki Saukkomaa

Finland - Estonia's Ott Tanak, behind the wheel of an M-Sport Ford, was fastest in the opening super special stage of the 2017 Rally of Finland on Thursday.

Tanak finished ahead of world championship title favourites Thierry Neuville of Hyundai and Sebastien Ogier, in another M-Sport/Ford, at 1.1sec and 1.5sec respectively.

Friday's action sees a marathon 16 hours of action with 12 stages raced over 145.6km, the longest sequence of the 2017 championship.

Standings after 1st stage:

1. Ott Tnak-Martin Jrveoja (EST/Ford Fiesta) 1:44.1
2. Thierry Neuville-Nicolas Gilsoul (BEL/Hyundai i20) at 1.1
3. Sbastien Ogier-Julien Ingrassia (FRA/Ford Fiesta) 1.5
4. Craig Breen-Scott Martin (IRL-GBR/Citron C3) 1.6
5. Jari-Matti Latvala-Miikka Anttila (FIN/Toyota Yaris) 2.2
6. Hayden Paddon-Seb Marshall (NZL-GBR/Hyundai i20) 2.5
7. Juho Hnninen-Kaj Lindstrom (FIN/Toyota Yaris) 2.7
8. Kris Meeke-Paul Nagle (GBR-IRL/Citron C3) 3.0
9. Elfyn Evans-Daniel Barritt (GBR/Ford Fiesta) 3.1
10. Dani Sordo-Marc Marti (ESP/Hyundai i20) 3.5

The fastest time through tonight's stage means that we lead @rallyfinland going into tomorrow's stages. I have a lot of respect for these challenging roads and when you get a good rhythm you can't help but smile. We hope for lots of smiles tomorrow! ?? #WRC #RallyFinland
A post shared by Ott Tänak (@otttanak) on Jul 27, 2017 at 11:19am PDT

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