Tanak completed the day's six demanding gravel stages with a 4.2s lad over Suninen, who impressed in only his third Rally1 start.
Tanak led the rally after winning the opening stage before losing the advantage following a spin and loss of hybrid in stage two. However, the 2019 world champion was able to rattle off two stage wins across the afternoon to regain the lead.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans led the rally after the morning loop but the effects of his elevated road position dropped the Welshman to third, 12.7s adrift.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville recovered from handling struggles in the morning to snatch fourth (+27.7s) from championship leader Kalle Rovanpera, who was lucky to reach service only 38.7s behind.
Takamoto Katsuta held sixth in the third Toyota ahead of Rally1 rookie Gregoire Munster (M-Sport), while Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet retired from the rally after rolls in stages one and three respectively.
After winning two of the three morning stages, Evans dropped from the rally lead to third after the afternoon’s first test, a second pass through Pulperia 19.77km.
Still feeling the effects of cleaning the road, Rovanpera's closest title challenger dropped 7.5s en route to setting a fifth fastest time that left him 4.9s adrift in the overall standings.
The lead initially swung towards Tanak, who posted a benchmark time, before Suninen delivered a blistering effort moments later to win the stage by 3.7s. The effort arrived after his Hyundai team elected to change the fuel tank on the Finn’s i20N during the midpoint service when a fuel pressure issue was detected.
Source: Autosport