Kalle Rovanpera further extended his Rally Finland lead on Sunday morning as the Finn bids to claim a first World Rally Championship victory on home soil.
The reigning world champion increased his advantage to 45.8s by winning the pair of morning stages over eight-time world champion and fellow part-time Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier.
Rovanpera’s pace thrusted him to the top of the Super Sunday standings by 1.2s from an eager team-mate Elfyn Evans hoping to limit the damage of Saturday’s driveshaft failure.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville continued to hold third overall [+ 1m28.8s] ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+1m56.8s] and Toyota’s Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari [+2m37.4s]. Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class in sixth overall [+8m15.5s] from Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, enjoying a one-off outing.
M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rejoined the rally after his team completed an impressive rebuild of his Puma that suffered heavy damage from a roll in Saturday’s stage 11.
Rovanpera didn’t need to push such was his advantage, but the Finn set the fastest time on Sunday’s opening test stage 17 [Sahloinen-Moksi, 14.27km]. The effort, that included a minor moment, extended his overnight lead on Ogier to 45.6s.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
The rally leader was 0.4s faster than Evans, who was desperate to start Sunday on the front foot after missing out on Saturday points, while the Welsh driver wasn’t expecting any team orders to assist his mission to claim the maximum 12 Super Sunday points.
“We have to see what is possible, it was a very clean run in here. Not sure it was quite brave enough, but we’ll see what [the time] looks like. Normally we’re in this on our own because of points, that’s how it has always been at Toyota. We need to do our job first,” said Evans.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi was third fastest ahead of Ogier and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, while championship leader Neuville could only manage the sixth fastest time 4.4s adrift, as the Belgian continued to struggle with his i20 N’s balance.
“I need to take too much risk if I want to go faster and there is no reason to take risk. We do worry [about Super Sunday], but I don’t need to go faster,” said Neuville.
The stage did feature wild moments for Fourmaux and Sami Pajari, the former briefly lost the rear of his Puma while the latter ran off the road into an open area of grass where he spun before rejoining the road.
Rovanpera notched up his 11th stage win of the event by pipping Ogier by 0.2s through the tight and technical Laajavuori, 4.35km test, that will also host the Power Stage.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“The stage is really cool for the fans but otherwise this micky mouse shit is not the best, I try to enjoy, at least with a rally car it is not too bad,” said Rovanpera.
Neuville was third fastest 0.6s adrift that put him sixth in the Super Sunday standings behind Rovanpera, Ogier, Evans, Lappi and Katsuta.
A second pass of the two stages will conclude Rally Finland.