Solberg’s WRC2 lead grows, Latvala in a spin on Saturday

Solberg, who led the WRC2 championship by three points coming into this ninth round of the season, began today with his focus firmly set on defending the 24.1-second advantage he’d built up over Latvala on Friday.

While Latvala closed to within 18.0 seconds of the Swede after three superfast stages this morning, Solberg responded by outpacing the Finn in both Västilä and Päijälä this afternoon to push the gap back up to 26.6 seconds. His lead widened further in the Ouninpohja finale when Latvala, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 on a rare outing outside his team principal duties for the Japanese marque, spun.

“It was a stupid mistake from my side,” the Finn explained. “I braked slightly too late and had to pull the handbrake to spin.”

Driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 similar to Solberg’s, Lauri Joona stormed past Mikko Heikkilä, Robert Virves, and Roope Korhonen to climb from sixth to third. Virves looked set to fill the final podium spot but plummeted to 10th after losing almost four minutes on the final stage when his Škoda’s bonnet flew open.

Heikkilä ended 12.4 seconds behind Joona in fourth but was frustrated not to be posting quicker stage times aboard his Toyota. The Finn’s cause wasn’t helped by a 10-second time penalty incurred when he checked into service one minute late.

Engine fluids leaking onto the windscreen of Georg Linnamäe’s GR Yaris were a distraction for the Estonian this morning, with him surprised to have claimed the fastest time for Ouninpohja 1. He was fifth overnight with Korhonen completing the top six.

Joona led the WRC2 Challenger category, while Mexico’s Ricardo Triviño topped the WRC Masters Cup standings.