At the end of Friday evening, Esapekka Lappi takes the lead of Rally Sweden from Takamoto Katsuta with Oliver Solberg following them.
Esapekka Lappi stole the first place from Takamoto Katsuta at the end of Stage 7 and was ahead of the Toyota driver for 1,8 seconds before the start of Umea Sprint. The Finn was the fastest driver in Stage 6, 7 and 8.
Katsuta dropped one place and is now second overall while he was ahead of EP for 0,3 seconds after SS6.
Oliver Solberg climbed to the third position after the penultimate stage of the day and is also the rally leader in WRC2 class.
Adrien Fourmaux overtook Elfyn Evans on the overall classification after SS6 and was in third place, but he dropped to fourth after Stage 7.
Evans dropped to sixth after SS7 and lost many seconds as he started first on the road from Stage 6 to 8. In fact, the Welshman doubted about Neuville's problems and suspected tactical games, but he stole the fifth place from Georg Linnamae in SS8.
Linnamae comes right behind Evans for one tenth of a second and was the fastest driver on the second pass from Brattby.
Thierry Neuville was fifth until the start of Stage 6, but he received a 40-second time penalty for starting four minutes late on the stage. The Belgian said at the end of SS6 that the engine was not running and had to check it while he ran with the bonnet open throughout Norrby. Finally, he revealed that his i20N carried a problem with the fuel pressure and is now eighth.
Gregoire Munster remains outside the top ten and lost the rear window of his Puma in Stage 6.
Kalle Rovanpera confirmed that he will restart on Saturday under the SuperRally regulations following by his retirement in Stage 4.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after SS8:
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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