Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera is edging closer to his first victory in the WRC Rally Finland after an impressive performance on the second leg. Rovanpera, who hails from Jyvaskyla, the city where the rally takes place, finished the penultimate leg with a 44.2-second lead over his teammate Sebastien Ogier. Thierry Neuville, driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1, is currently in third place, trailing behind Rovanpera by 39.2 seconds.
Saturday’s stages mirrored the fast-paced action of the previous day, with Rovanpera, Elfyn Evans, and Ogier dominating the leaderboard in their Toyota cars. However, Evans encountered a setback when his GR Yaris’s front-right driveshaft broke during the second stage, causing him to lose nearly six minutes as he navigated through the remaining stages in road mode. Rovanpera’s lead over Ogier grew to over 20 seconds by the end of the morning leg. In the afternoon, Rovanpera continued his flawless performance, winning all but one of the six stages, including the challenging Ouninpohja stage.
Ogier, an eight-time WRC champion, acknowledged that he lacked the necessary commitment to challenge Rovanpera due to his two-year absence from the event. Neuville, on the other hand, showed improvement in pace compared to the previous day, earning valuable championship points with his third-place position. Evans, currently third in the WRC drivers’ standings, has yet to score any points in this rally. Ott Tanak, who was second in the points standings, did not participate in the rally after a severe crash on Friday.
In the WRC2 category, Oliver Solberg maintained his lead in his Skoda Fabia RS. He held a comfortable advantage over Jari-Matti Latvala, who was driving a GR Yaris Rally2 as a one-off for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Solberg extended his lead after Latvala spun in the final stage of the day. With a trouble-free final day, Solberg is poised to increase his lead in the WRC2 standings.
The final leg of the rally on Sunday will consist of four more high-speed stages, totaling 25.89 competitive miles. Sahloinen-Moksi and Laajavuori will be run twice, with the latter serving as the rally-closing Wolf Power Stage, offering bonus points.
Photo by Kalle Rovanpera Instagram
