Home hero Teemu Asunmaa found himself at the forefront of the WRC3 battle as rivals hit trouble on Saturday at Arctic Rally Finland Powered by CapitalBox. The Finn, driving a Skoda Fabia Rally2, started the day in second behind Emil Lindholm. However, an uncharacteristic mistake saw the early leader crash out on the Kaihuavaara test, handing the lead to Asunmaa. At close of play, Asunmaa’s advantage over his rival was just 12.5sec. Fabia man Eerik Pietarinen was 1min 5.5sec down on the leading pair in third. He held a miniscule 1.7sec advantage over fourth-placed Mikko Heikkilä, who was driving a similar car.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•