Citroen’s Esapekka Lappi has extended his Rally Turkey lead to 17.7 seconds after a tough afternoon, increasing his advantage over reigning World Rally Championship winner Sebastien Ogier.
Lappi excelled during the rain-affected second running of the 23.6-mile Cetibeli stage in his C3 on Friday afternoon, despite being on the hard tyre which was ill-suited to the cooler wet weather.
He set the second fastest time on that stage, behind Thierry Neuville, who had been forced to change to three medium tyres just before Cetibeli as a result of a slow puncture, and that changed helped Neuville to set a time 7.6s quicker than Lappi.
Ogier had a clean afternoon to move into second overall but he goes into Saturday only 0.7s ahead of Neuville.
Teemu Suninen moves up to fourth – albeit 26s behind the leading trio – ahead of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen, who described the Cetibeli stage as “driving on ice”.
Dani Sordo reported intermittent engine issues with his i20 early on in the afternoon, but went onto complete the final stage of the day 10.9s quicker than anybody else, propelling himself up to sixth position.
A stall did not stop Citroen’s Kris Meeke winning the opening stage of the afternoon but he too struggled in the rain, losing over a minute to Neuville in the second test.
Current 2019 points leader Ott Tanak picked up a puncture early-on in the Cetibeli stage and the time loss dropped him down to seventh overall, which turned into eighth after Sordo’s blistering Ula performance.
Fellow Toyota driver Jari-Matti Latvala was another victim on Friday afternoon, losing 50s in the opening stage with puncture, with the problem compounded by the exhaust noise getting into the car and drowning out his pace notes.
M-Sport’s Pontus Tidemand is the last of the WRC drivers, 3m45s off Lappi’s lead.
Classification – stage seven
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Citroen Total WRT | Citroen | 1h59m53.7s |
| 2 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | Citroen Total WRT | Citroen | 17.7s |
| 3 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 18.4s |
| 4 | Teemu Suninen, J.Lehtinen | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 44.4s |
| 5 | Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 1m04.1s |
| 6 | Dani Sordo, C.del Barrio | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai | 1m25.2s |
| 7 | Kris Meeke, S.Marshall | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m32.1s |
| 8 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m37.4s |
| 9 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota | 1m42.5s |
| 10 | Pontus Tidemand, O.Floene | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 3m45.4s |
| 11 | Kajetan Kajetanowicz, M.Szczepaniak | Kajetan Kajetanowicz | Volkswagen | 8m22.4s |
| 12 | Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler | Skoda Motorsport | Skoda | 9m03.9s |
| 13 | Gus Greensmith, E.Edmondson | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford | 10m06.2s |
| 14 | Marco Bulacia Wilkinson, F.Cretu | Marco Bulacia Wilkinson | Skoda | 11m26.4s |
| 15 | Fabio Andolfi, E.Inglesi | Fabio Andolfi | Skoda | 12m54.9s |
| 16 | Diogo Salvi, H.Magalhaes | Diogo Salvi | Skoda | 20m59.1s |
| 17 | Burak Cukurova, V.Bostanci | Burak Cukurova | Skoda | 25m08.1s |
| 18 | Paulo Nobre, G.Morales | Paulo Nobre | Skoda | 28m39.7s |
| 19 | Bora Manyera, C.Cerkez | Bora Manyera | Skoda | 31m20.7s |
| 20 | Murat Bostanci, O.Vatansever | Murat Bostanci | Ford | 31m38.6s |
| 21 | Fabrizio Arengi Bentivoglio, M.Bosi | Fabrizio Arengi Bentivoglio | Skoda | 34m18.5s |
| 22 | Kalle Rovanpera, J.Halttunen | Skoda Motorsport | Skoda | 38m58.1s |
| 23 | Carlo Covi, G.Campesan | Carlo Covi | Peugeot | 53m37.7s |
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