Early
Academy
advantage
for Fisher

Fisher, from Northern Ireland, is 20.2s clear of Swede Victor Henriksson following Thursday’s opening trio of stages.

“We picked a good pace and the pace notes were flowing really well,” said Fisher, who is co-driven by Englishman Daniel Barritt. “Today is going to be a long old day, especially with only a remote service, so we’ve got to be careful but we didn’t take any risks on Thursday and there’s definitely more to come.”

Henriksson said he would have been closer to Fisher had it not been for an overshoot on stage two, which cost him 10 seconds.

Irishman Craig Breen, the highest-placed Pirelli Star Driver, recovered from a spin on the opening stage to hold third despite reporting handling problems with the rear of his car.

Estonian Egon Kaur, the runaway category leader, is fourth, after being delayed for approximately 15 seconds when he went straight on at a tight-left corner after being dazzled by the sun. The Estonian is 0.1s ahead of Australian Brendan Reeves, who overshot a hairpin right on stage three but otherwise impressed.

Rear axle problems have restricted Andrea Crugnola to sixth. Argentina’s Miguel Baldoni is seventh with Dutchman Timo van der Marel a strong eighth overall after recovering from an overshoot on stage two. Christian Riedemann, who is ninth, also overshot a junction on the second stage

While Fisher enjoyed a trouble-free Thursday, Russian Sergey Karyakin was less fortunate when he rolled on the first corner of the first special stage. Swede Fredrik Ahlin suffered a slow puncture four kilometres into the first stage. Australian Molly Taylor was also delayed by a slow puncture on the opening test and lost more time with a spin and overshoot on stage two.

Sixteen drivers are fighting it out for WRC Academy glory in Finland. All crews are competing in identical Ford Fiesta R2s prepared by the British M-Sport organisation and running on Pirelli control tyres.