WRC Rally Finland: Kalle Rovanpera survives puncture to double lead

Kalle Rovanpera extended his Rally Finland lead on Saturday morning despite suffering a puncture, as changeable weather continued to create drama at the World Rally Championship event.

The Toyota driver picked up from where he left off on Friday, winning three of the four gravel stages to increase his 4.9s overnight advantage over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville to 14.7s.

Rovanpera admitted he still wasn’t completely comfortable behind the wheel, but his approach continued to yield fast stage times. The two-time world champion, yet to win his home event, took 3.4s out of Neuville when he claimed stage 11 (Parkkola 1, 15.51km) in damp conditions.

Rovanpera, disturbed by losing the visor from his windscreen, was 3.7s faster than the reigning champion on his way to winning stage 12 (Västilä 1, 18.94 km), which resulted in the Finn’s lead increasing to 12.0s.

That advantage was cut to 9.3s when Rovanpera suffered a slow puncture towards the end of stage 13 (Päijälä 1, 20.1 km).

“It was not too bad to be honest,” Rovanpera told Motorsport.com. “Obviously, having the puncture out of nowhere was a bit of a surprise like it is many times, but all good otherwise.

Kalle Rovanperä, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“It [losing the visor] was quite distracting, I have never seen the windscreen without it. I think 30-35% is taped normally and fully black and when it goes off your vision is very different, so I was a bit distracted for a few kilometres.

“I wouldn’t say [more rain this afternoon would be good]. I think we are quite comfortable in the stable conditions and normally it is the other way around. How we have optimised the car now is not the best on unstable conditions."

Neuville continued to impress on Finland’s fast gravel stages that haven’t historically been among his favourites. He was distracted by a wheel nut gun that had come loose underneath his seat in the day’s opening stage.

The Belgian was the fastest Hyundai across the morning stages. Neuville claimed stage 13 after Rovanpera’s puncture, before a rear brake issue cost him valuable seconds in the final test of the loop.

“The nut gun was flying around my legs and at the first braking zone it came off and I immediately went in a ditch because I was surprised,” said Neuville.

“I’m not so happy with the last stage as we could have done much better, but I lost the rear brakes. We had a stone in the calibre so I lost confidence. We had it yesterday already but only for a few corners. It was longer this time.”

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Adrien Fourmaux maintained his assault on the podium positions, ending the loop in third, only 0.3s behind Neuville and 15.0s away from the lead. Fourmaux did, however, pull a 10.9s margin over fourth-placed Takamoto Katsuta.

Katsuta was angry with himself for losing time in the first stage but managed to find speed as the morning progressed.

Eight-time world champion Sebastian Ogier was lucky to survive a wild moment when his GR Yaris dropped a right rear wheel into the ditch in stage 11. Ogier admitted he was lacking the commitment to match the lead group, but still moved ahead of Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari into fifth [+36.4s].

Erstwhile championship leader Elfyn Evans ended the loop in seventh, 1.4s behind Pajari. M-Sport’s Martins Sesks led the Ford charge in eighth, while team-mates Josh McErlean and Gregoire Munster completed the top 10.

Championship leader Ott Tanak climbed from 28th to 22nd after receiving a five-minute penalty and a suspended 35-point deduction following a collision with a scrutineer at the end of Friday’s stage seven.

When asked about the penalty, Tanak said: “Obviously what is done is done, it was definitely nothing intentional and very unfortunate. I only found out later what had happened and there is nothing I can do other than apologise.”

In WRC2, Roope Korhonen extended his lead to 7.7s, which is now over 18-time WRC winner Jari-Matti Latvala. Crews will repeat the quartet of stages on Saturday afternoon with further rain expected.