Sebastian Ojie
• On Saturday, the athletes had to complete five special stages (97.86 km) without a service park.
• The fastest day was started by Elfins Evans, who lost 0.7 seconds to Kalle Rovanpera. Only the seventh fastest time was for rally leader Sebastian Leb, who lost 7.3 seconds. Unsuccessful stage for Otta Tanak, who broke the wheel.
• Sebastian Ojier was the fastest in the second stage of the day, but Leb finished in fourth place. After this stage, both legends of the rally – Lebs and Ogie – emerged under the leadership of the rally, showing exactly the same time. “I had a good stage, but it was so slippery and uneven that it didn’t help me. It seems that these morning stages were not for me, so we’ll see how we go next,” Labe said after the finish.
• Unsuccessful stage for Oliver Solberg, who ran off the road and lost 35 minutes to the winner of the stage.
• The drama took place on stage 11, where a couple of kilometers of snow and ice on the track. The mistake was made by Elfins Evans in third place, who ran off the road. While spectators helped the athlete return to the track, Evans lost 20 minutes. Tanaks also slipped in the snowy section and was hit by another tire. Due to the fact that Tanak took a risk and took only one spare tire with him to the three stages in the morning (which was changed in the first part of the day), Tanak no longer had a spare tire to replace, so the athlete was forced to quit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4oFOMoI_U
• It should be noted that in the first three stages of the rally, several drivers struggled with various technical problems.
• In stage 12, three riders finished in 0.6 seconds, with Rovanpera being the fastest. Unfortunately, due to the shock absorber problem, Terry Neuville (+3: 40.3) lost a lot of time, falling to sixth place in the overall standings, while Rovanpera, who was only ninth in the overall standings after the second day, rose to fourth place!
• Rovanpera was the fastest in the final stage of the day, choosing to put on two winter tires, which paid off even in the middle of snow and ice. Meanwhile, Ojie, who finished 2nd in the stage, had initially decided to put on two winter tires, but after Ojie saw that Leb was choosing to put on four flat tires, Ojie also decided to put on all the bad tires.
• After three days, the leader in the overall standings is now Ojie, who loses 21 seconds, but Craig Brin is almost a minute and a half behind. The fourth is Rovanpera, two minutes behind.
• Dramatic events also in the WRC2 Open class, where several leaders had both technical problems and mistakes. In the final stage, leader Mikelsen broke the tire, but second-placed Joan Rossell made a mistake in the same snowy spot as Takamoto Katsuta. In the overall standings, Mickelsen was able to keep the lead, but Erik Cais loses only 22 seconds. Rossell dropped to fourth place, while Gryazin was already fifth. The Russian rider is separated from the third position by 37 seconds.
• On the final day of the rally, the athletes will have to complete four special stages (67.26 km).
Rally results:
