Kris Meeke leads Neste Oil Rally Finland after end of day two. He holds 18.1 seconds lead over Finnish favorite Jari-Matti Latvala. It seems...
Kris Meeke leads Neste Oil Rally Finland after end of day two. He holds 18.1 seconds lead over Finnish favorite Jari-Matti Latvala. It seems like VW boss Jost Capitos's predictions were right. Meeke made utmost use of his road position and kept up the pace whole day to challenge the VW Polo's. Latvala tried to catch him, but Meeke was up to the task. Sebastien Ogier had a rare off road incident by going into a ditch in a hairpin.
Finnish gravel GP got underway with a short special stage Harju. Ott Tanak and Andreas Mikkelsen were joint fastest. Tanak made it clear that he would push hard as hell. Day two of Rally Finland was a busy day, with eleven special stages to run. Meeke was fast from the first stage itself, he was battling with Ott Tanak for stage wins. Unfortunately Tanak broke the suspension of his Fiesta WRC. By midday service Meeke was leading by 18.8 seconds. Latavala too had his share of incidents. In special stage four he suffered a puncture and had some cosmetic damage to his Polo, but he lost only 16 seconds, and was back on pace in second position.
In the afternoon loop Tanak again began his assault. Won two stages, but again luck was not with him. Had a puncture in special stage 10. Meeke never faced any major issue and was posting consistent top stage times. By the end of day he was leading by 18.1 seconds. Latvala got his confidence back, but could not match Meeke's pace. Second after day two. Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville was in third after a good day. VW pilot Mikkelsen was just 1.1 seconds behind Neuville in fourth. Craig Breen is in fourth overall, he admitted that lack of experience in a world rally car barred his pace. Hayden Paddon holds fifth just 4.4 seconds behind Breen. M-Sport driver Mads Ostberg is in seventh, Ott Tanak in eight after he suffered problems. Eric Camilli and WRC 2 driver Esapekka Lappi rounded off the top ten after day two.
Another major incident was, Ogier went off the road. He spun out in a hairpin and his Polo got stuck in a ditch. It took 16 minutes to get going. Ogier said it was a 'stupid' mistake. Currently he is 53rd overall.
Overall Classification
| Pos. | No. |   | Driver / Co-driver Vehicle | Pos. | SS time Penalty | Total time | Diff.Leader Diff.Prev. |
| 1 | 7 |  1 | Meeke Kris / Nagle Paul Citroën DS3 WRC | RC1 1 | 01:13:22.2 | 01:13:22.2 | 00:00:00.0 00:00:00.0 |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Latvala J. / Anttila Miikka Volkswagen Polo R WRC | RC1 2 | 01:13:40.3 | 01:13:40.3 | 00:00:18.1 00:00:18.1 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | Neuville T. / Gilsoul Nicolas Hyundai i20 WRC | RC1 3 | 01:14:06.5 | 01:14:06.5 | 00:00:44.3 00:00:26.2 |
| 4 | 9 | 4 | Mikkelsen A. / Jæger Anders Volkswagen Polo R WRC | RC1 4 | 01:14:07.6 | 01:14:07.6 | 00:00:45.4 00:00:01.1 |
| 5 | 8 | 5 | Breen Craig / Martin Scott Citroën DS3 WRC | RC1 5 | 01:14:16.0 | 01:14:16.0 | 00:00:53.8 00:00:08.4 |
| 6 | 4 | 6 | Paddon Hayden / Kennard John Hyundai i20 WRC | RC1 6 | 01:14:20.4 | 01:14:20.4 | 00:00:58.2 00:00:04.4 |
| 7 | 5 | 7 | Østberg Mads / Fløene Ola Ford Fiesta RS WRC | RC1 7 | 01:14:25.1 | 01:14:25.1 | 00:01:02.9 00:00:04.7 |
| 8 | 12 | 8 | Tänak Ott / Mõlder Raigo Ford Fiesta RS WRC | RC1 8 | 01:14:36.6 | 01:14:36.6 | 00:01:14.4 00:00:11.5 |
| 9 | 6 | 9 | Camilli Eric / Veillas B. Ford Fiesta RS WRC | RC1 9 | 01:14:44.8 | 01:14:44.8 | 00:01:22.6 00:00:08.2 |
| 10 | 35 | 10 | Lappi Esapekka / Ferm Janne Škoda Fabia R5 | RC2 1 | 01:15:24.0 | 01:15:24.0 | 00:02:01.8 00:00:39.2 |
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