Andreas Mikkelsen and Torstein Eriksen took the lead of Rally Poland on Friday morning’s first stage and relentlessly built a 7.4 second lead over the morning loop ahead a sensational Martins Sesks on his Rally1 debut in a non-hybrid M-Sport Ford Puma.
The Latvian was speechless when he found out he’d set the second fastest stage time in SS2.
Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin had their most competitive outing in months holding third place a handful of seconds further back in third.
Called in as a last-minute replacement to stand-in for Sebastian Ogier who withdrew after a recce accident, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were doing an exceptional job in fourth, given their minimal prep time.
Straight after the tyre-fitting zone, Rovanperä blitzed the stage and took the lead, albeit by 0.2 seconds from Mikkelsen. Sesks was close, 1.1 seconds further back with Evans another 1.1 seconds away.
After stage six and seven, Rovanperä was third, 2.1 seconds off the lead before leapfrogging Evans for second, 1.8 seconds behind Mikkelsen as the day wound down.
“This morning everything was quite tricky for me given our preparation, even more than I was expecting. With the preparation time we had, and after such a long time without driving a fast rally or even a test, it’s not been easy to make good and precise pacenotes for these speeds. I just tried to find a pace where I was comfortable and to finish the loop without any mistakes. Then in the afternoon we could show our pace straightaway and it was more enjoyable. I think we did all we could, it was a clean day with no mistakes and our position is not bad tonight considering everything. Tomorrow I hope we can be stronger in the first pass and let’s see what we can do,” said Rovanperä.
Hyundai’s leading driver Mikkelsen said: “It has been a good day at Rally Poland. It is a shame we couldn’t do more stages, but all in all a positive day. I was far too cautious on the long stage after mid-day service: I am used to the Rally2 cars where you have to be really careful in the ruts, but with these tyres you can just throw the car in. It’s one of the learnings I can take advantage of moving forward; I love this event, and I want to bring a fight to the guys tomorrow. It will be a proper battle, with no road cleaning and the top guys starting in front of me, so a completely different day to today.”
It was mighty close over the lightning fast stages! Another superb drive came from M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria, the young Frenchman setting times well within reach of the top runners. He won stage seven but the stage was cancelled (as was stage three earlier) due to errant spectators in the stage and competitors were awarded nominal times.
A final push in the day’s final stage saw Fourmaux pip Sesks for fourth but with just 0.2 seconds, the two Ford drivers will be itching to continue their fight.
Grégoire Munster held sixth ahead of the championship leader Thierry Neuville who found the going particularly difficult opening the road.
Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja were forced to retire in stage two after an unavoidable collision with a deer which ran across their path. He said: “It was really bad luck for us today. Looking back at the onboard, we were on a straight section but the time between the deer emerging from the bush and the impact was only 0.26 seconds. There was no time to react and avoid the situation.”
In WRC2, Sami Pajari held an 8.9 second lead over local hero Kajetan Kajetanowicz in a Toyota vs Skoda fight.
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