Jyväskylä (Finland) (AFP)

Estonian coach Ött Tänak (Toyota) dominated the Rally Finland debates on Saturday night before the final day, ahead of Finland's Esapekka Lappi (Citroën), who took advantage of the puncture of his compatriot Jari-Matti Latvala, also on Toyota.

Tänak, current world championship leader, was spared by the hazards that hit Latvala (puncture) and Kris Meeke of Britain, the third man on the Japanese team, who broke his rear suspension by hitting a stone and had to give up when he was 3rd.

Tänak took the lead in the rally and is now 16.4 seconds ahead of Lappi and 28.8 seconds behind Latvala.

"It was a good day, very clean, yesterday and this morning it was very tight but now it's better," said the taciturn Estonian - who was already the winner in Finland last year - when the 19th and last special Saturday.

His teammate Latvala could only be disappointed: he hit, like Meeke, a stone and punctured his left rear tire, losing more than ten seconds in the operation and suddenly the head of the race.

He was then overtaken on a regular basis by Lappi. "I have to say that Esapekka drove really well today, I'm thinking now of points for the constructors' classification and I may have slowed down a bit too much," he said.

Toyota is currently 44 points behind Hyundai in the Constructors' World Rally Championship and is doing everything to fill that gap.

As for "Happy Lappi", he was honoring his nickname Saturday night: "It was a very good day, the afternoon was more positive than I expected and I had a lot of fun," said the jovial Finnish who won two scratch in the afternoon in front of the Toyota.

These are at home in Finland where is installed the rally team of the Japanese manufacturer, itself led by the former Finnish champion Tommi Mäkinen, four-time world rally champion.

- bitter Finnish -

The setbacks of his two drivers Meeke and Latvala have quite angry.

"There was still a long way to go and they both had a good pace, they could really control things, they had orders before the rally to do their best to go far and be careful. when you put the helmet on your head ... ", he said bitter.

Frenchman Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) also had a good operation. Sick during the night from Friday to Saturday, however, he managed to keep up with the pace of the race and pointed before the last day to the 5th position at 53 seconds Tänak but only 2.6 small seconds of the 4th, the Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai).

"Honestly, I was sad today, I'm completely dead and I just want to find my bed," said the six-time world champion. "I hope I can recover to fight tomorrow" Sunday, he added.

He keeps especially at distance Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). The Belgian, currently third in the world championship behind Tänak and Ogier, is in 7th place on Saturday night at almost a minute and 20 seconds behind the leader and more than 26 seconds behind Ogier. "There may still be surprises" Sunday, he said, however.

Another four special stages will be played on Sunday, the last of which will be the "power stage" which sees the top 5 score extra points at the world championship. The Rally Finland is the 9th event of this championship which has 14.

© 2019 AFP