Kalle Rovanperä stood out at the top of the Central Europe Rally during Friday morning. The rain is making life very difficult for the drivers, but the leader of the World Rally Championship (WRC) is delivering a performance almost free of mistakes and setbacks, with almost half a minute of advantage.
Friday started with Rovanperä (Toyota) being the fastest in SS3 (Vlachovo Březí 1), with a time good enough to move up to second place. However, he still lagged behind the overall leader at the time, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who set the fourth fastest time behind Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Elfyn Evans (Toyota). Sébastien Ogier was out of contention for a good result due to damage to the right wheel of his Toyota, while Teemu Suninen suffered a puncture in the Hyundai and also fell behind.
The first pass through Zvotoky continued the rally and Rovanperä set the pace again, this time 10.1s ahead of Lappi. Evans was third, 14.6s behind, and Neuville was fourth, 19.5s behind, after making a mistake at a junction, so Rovanperä took the lead 18.1s ahead of the Belgian. Lappi moved up to third, while Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford) dropped two positions and became fifth. Evans remained in fourth.
The morning session ended with SS5 (Šumavské Hoštice 1), in which Rovanperä continued to show superiority, this time surpassing Evans by 6.4s. With the third fastest time, 12 seconds behind, Neuville dropped to third overall, so now it is Evans who is chasing Rovanperä. He is 29.2s behind. Tänak regained fourth place after Lappi’s retirement due to an accident, and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) is now fifth.
In WRC2, Emil Lindholm (Hyundai) is the leader, 17.9s ahead of Erik Cais (Skoda), and he was the fastest. Nikolay Gryazin (Skoda) set the pace in the next two stages, but he fell considerably behind due to a puncture in the first stage of the day. But Lindholm only reached the top in SS4, in which Andreas Mikkelsen damaged the suspension of his Skoda. Yohan Rossel (Citroën), who led WRC2 after yesterday’s day, had an accident right in SS3.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda) is third in WRC2, and second in WRC2 Challenger. There, the leader is Cais, who despite not being the fastest in any of the morning stages managed to be consistent and did not suffer major setbacks. The top two are separated by 4.3s, and Nicolas Ciamin (Skoda) is third, only 5.5s behind. As for WRC3, Fabio Schwartz dominated the first two stages on Friday, but the time lost in SS5 means he is second, 26.5s behind Filip Kohn.
Top ten overall after SS5:
