Rovanpera wins again in Estonia to stretch championship lead

Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera won in Estonia for the second year in a row on Sunday to take another big step towards becoming rallying's youngest world champion.

The 21-year-old Finn, who last year in Estonia became the youngest driver to win a round of the championship, has now won five of the last six rallies with Estonia the seventh of a scheduled 13 events.

Rovanpera dominated the gravel event to finish just over a minute ahead of second-placed team mate Elfyn Evans and stretch his championship lead over Hyundai's Thierry Neuville to 83 points.

Estonia's 2019 world champion Ott Tanak finished third for Hyundai in the gravel event, with Neuville fourth after struggling at the end with a foggy windscreen.

Tyrone man Aaron Johnston is co-driver to Japan's Takamoto Katsuta in the Toyota team, and they had a good weekend to finish fifth.

Fermanagh driver Jon Armstrong and his navigator and fellow county man Brian Hoy were 18th for Fiesta Rally3, with another Irish pairing - Josh McErlean and James Fulton on eplace behind them in their PCRS Rallysport-run Hyundai i20 N Rally2.

Wiiliam Creighton and Liam Regan were 23rd for Fiesta Rally3 but Craig Breen (Puma Rally1 HYBRID) suffered a weekend of misfortune, crashing out of day two on Friday and then suffering a puncture on Saturday that saw him lose time on what was otherwise a productive day for the Waterford native and co-driver Paul Nagle. They finished in 30th.

The next rally is in Finland from 4 to 7 August.