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WRC 2 in Finland: Huttunen doubles lead

Jari Huttunen increased his lead in WRC 2 to more than two minutes at Neste Rally Finland on saturday.

The young Finn carried a lead of 56.2sec into the penultimate leg of the four-day rally in his Skoda Fabia R5. He won five of the eight gravel speed tests to more than double his advantage to 2min 06.4sec.

It is the first time Huttunen has competed at this level but apart from a spin, he was untroubled and just four short speed tests stand between him and victory tomorrow.

Frenchman Quentin Gilbert enjoyed a troublefree day in his Fabia R5 to retain second, while Tom Cave moved up from fifth to fill the final podium place in a Hyundai i20 R5 after Fabio Andolfi rolled his similar car.

Osian Pryce was more than 2min 30sec behind Cave in fourth despite compressing his Ford Fiesta R5's exhaust and damaging the front and back of the car.

Japan's Hiroki Arai dropped time with broken power steering and a puncture in his similar car en route to fifth. Almost a minute further back in sixth was Simone Tempestini, who was lucky to escape when his Citroën DS 3 R5 hit some railings after a wayward landing over a jump.

Juuso Nordgren retired for a second time after suffering two punctures with only one spare available in his Fabia R5, while Umberto Scandola retired his Fabia R5 in SS15.

Zdroj: wrc.com