Sebastien Loeb has extended his lead of Neste Oil Rally Finland to five seconds by wining the day-closing superspecial at the Killeri trotting track in out of town Jyvaskyla.
Loeb, in a works Citroen, took 1m22.8s to complete the 2.06-kilometre two-by-two course, 0.3s faster than factory Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who felt he could have claimed the stage win had he not made a small mistake.
“There was one place where I went a little bit wide and that’s why Loeb won it,” said Latvala following his head-to-head with the eight-time world champion. “I wanted to beat him but I couldn’t. I am closer than ever in a superspecial, which is a positive.”
Petter Solberg was third quickest, 0.5s down on Loeb with Evgeny Novikov fourth, Ott Tanak fifth and Mikko Hirvonen sixth. Hirvonen started the stage three seconds adrift of Citroen team-mate Loeb in the battle for first place but a slower run means he drops back in the overall classification.
Mads Ostberg was seventh fastest with Martin Prokop and Jari Ketomaa joint eighth quickest. Ken Block and Armindo Araujo shared the 10th best time. Sebastian Lindholm, who went up against MINI driver Araujo, lost time at the start due to an issue with his car’s starting device.
Crews are now heading back to service and the overnight halt in Jyvaskyla. Stage 13 of the FIA World Rally Championship qualifier, Surkee, goes live at 07:56hrs local time on Saturday.
| Pos. | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | S. LOEB | 1h20m30.4s |
| 2. | M. HIRVONEN | +5.0 |
| 3. | J. LATVALA | +20.3 |
| 4. | P. SOLBERG | +21.4 |
| 5. | M. ØSTBERG | +47.7 |
| 6. | O. TÄNAK | +1:36.4 |
| 7. | J. KETOMAA | +2:28.3 |
| 8. | M. RANTANEN | +2:47.4 |
| 9. | M. PROKOP | +3:18.4 |
| 10. | K. BLOCK | +4:47.0 |
| 11. | S. OGIER | +4:57.9 |
| 12. | C. BREEN | +5:33.1 |
| 13. | P. ANDERSSON | +5:36.8 |
| 14. | K. KRUUDA | +6:06.8 |
| 15. | S. LINDHOLM | +6:41.5 |
| 16. | J. SALO | +6:44.0 |
| 17. | R. TAHKO | +6:48.1 |
| 18. | A. ARAÚJO | +7:01.7 |
| 19. | J. NIKARA | +7:14.8 |
| 20. | Y. AL RAJHI | +7:32.8 |