Rovanpera shines in changeable weather as Tanak hits trouble

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera emerged from an intense multi-crew fight with a slender Rally Finland lead after battling through tricky changeable conditions on Friday. 

There were question marks over the two-time World Rally Championship champion’s form having struggled on gravel this year, and despite not being overly comfortable with his “flat out” approach, it was enough to end Friday with a 4.9s lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.  

Rovanpera notched up two fastest times on stage 2 (Saarikas 1,15.78 km) and stage 4 (Myhinpää 1, 14.47 km) across a morning loop that was held largely in dry conditions with the top five split by 4.9s.

Intermittent rain showers arrived for the second pass through the stages providing difficult conditions for the crews. Renowned for his pace in such scenarios, Rovanpera won stage seven in impressive fashion although the Finn labelled the run as “scary”, while admitting he was “all over the place”.

Rovanpera then starched his lead further after sharing the fastest time on stage eight with Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux. Rovanpera dropped 1.9s across the day’s final two stages but held onto to his lead.

“Not easy by any means, not really in my comfort zone, but I’m just cooking quite hard,” said Rovanpera. 

Reigning world champion Neuville enjoyed one of his strength days in Finland, despite not enjoying the high-speed stages he felt were too fast in the dry.

“In the afternoon the driving was a bit more important than just going flat out, and that was what I enjoyed more,” said Neuville. “I would say it was a good afternoon but Kalle is still very fast obviously but we are not very far away.”

Hyundai team-mate Fourmaux found himself locked in the victory hunt all day. The Frenchman had the edge over Neuville in the dry, but in the wet conditions where grip levels were changing all the time, the roles reversed. Fourmaux had been Rovanpera’s nearest rival at midday service but at the end of Friday he dropped to third, 7.7s adrift of the lead.

Fourmaux was locked in battle with Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta throughout the afternoon. Katsuta claimed his 50th career WRC stage win in stage six, which elevated the Japanese to second, 3.3s behind Rovnapera. However, a big sideways moment in the next test cost him 2.4s, before ending the day 0.4s behind Fourmaux in fourth and 8.1s away from the lead.  

Toyota’s Sami Pajari delivered his strongest showing of the season to date to claim two stage wins in the morning. The Finn remained firmly in the battle at the front, heading to service 15.7s behind.

Sebastien Ogier declared his Friday “decent” on his way to seventh having been hampered by some of the worst of the wet conditions. The eight-time world champion was 8.4s ahead of title rival and Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, who was frustrated by the weather in seventh [+26s].

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The Rally1 field was completed by Martins Sesks (M-Sport-Ford), Josh McErlean (M-Sport-Ford), championship leader Ott Tanak and Gregoire Munster (M-Sport-Ford).

Tanak, already disadvantaged by opening the road, was fortunate his i20 N emerged from an 8G impact when he locked up and slid off the road and into a tree on stage seven. The car suffered damage to its cooling system, but Tanak was able return to service albeit 1m07.2s in arrears, having been only 16.1s adrift at the end of the morning loop. 

“The impact was quite strong and we damaged the cooling system and we lost the cooling fan and some parts, so it was a bit tricky to do the loop,” said Tanak. “We had to keep going and cool the engine but somehow we managed.”   

It was also a challenging return to WRC2 for points leader Oliver Solberg following an outright victory in a Rally1 car in Estonia. Readjusting to the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car proved difficult, resulting in a missed junction that cost Solberg 10 seconds and dropped him from third to seventh in class.

Solberg’s day worsened when his car hit a rock that had been dragged onto the road, and found a ditch, forcing him into retirement.     

A social media post from Solberg read: “Unfortunately our Friday ends on SS7. A rock in the line kicked us off and we went into the ditch. Not much we could have done about that. Big shame [was] trying to fight and get back the feeling but that’s life.”

Finland’s Roope Korhonen ended Friday with the WRC2 class lead by 3.8s from Rally Estonia WRC2 winner Robert Virves. WRC veteran and Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala had held the lead before the rain hit, dropping to fourth.