McRae, the
nephew of the late rallying legend Colin, was 19.3sec down on Jasper Vaher in
third place with two stages of leg one remaining.
But when
Vaher and second-placed Mille Johansson both suffered significant delays on
SS6, McRae seized the initiative to take top spot ahead of Junior ERC rookie
Calle Carlberg and the recovering Vaher.
“It was as
challenging as we thought it would be,” McRae said. “We made a good choice of tyres for the afternoon in that we only used
four tyres in the morning, which left us with more tyres for the afternoon. On
the long stage this morning the car just nose-dived and we overshot the next
corner but other than that the pace was good. It’s been positive so far.”
Opel Corsa Rally4 driver Carlberg said:
“It’s better than expectations, my ERC debut on such a tough event. I’m not 100
per cent confident with the car yet because it’s the first time but everything
is a compromise on a rally like this. It’s a rally for me to really learn.”
Behind Vaher, Aoife Raftery has been on
impressive form for the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy with Mattia Zanin
fifth after the ACI Team Italia driver was delayed by a broken driveshaft, bent
rear suspension and brake issues this morning.
Aleksandar Tomov, Jack Brennan, Johansson,
Davide Pesavento and Alfred Kramer complete the top 10. However, Patrik
Herczig, Liam Muller, Leevi Lassila, Karl-Markus Sei, Timo Schulz, Geronimo
Nerobutto and Daniel Polášek all failed to complete today’s six-stage leg but
are expected to attempt to restart on Sunday.
Polášek was the first Junior ERC driver to
hit trouble, stopping on SS2 with a broken wheel. He said: “I cut a corner
which was a no-cut in the notes and there was a stone and the wheel broke up so
we finished on the sixth kilometre of the first stage. We had a good speed, the
feeling was great but I was too fast in one corner. It was my mistake.”
The 15.34-kilometre Iszka stage
will mark the resumption of the battle for Junior ERC glory from 09:27 local
time tomorrow (Sunday, 14 April).
Finland
Italy
Hungary