Rovanperä posted one fastest stage time on Friday and ended the opening day in third place. Despite this, Rovanperä expressed frustration with his performance, believing he could have done better.
Read also: Kalle Rovanperä remains hopeful – “It could have gone much worse”
Rovanperä remains in contention for the win. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans leads the gravel rally by three seconds over Hyundai’s Ott Tänak, with Rovanperä trailing by 10.1 seconds in third.
Toyota boss Latvala offered his thoughts on why Rovanperä couldn’t launch a full attack on the opening day.
“He doesn’t like this kind of slippery surface. Kalle is really strong when it’s rainy and muddy, but when it comes to a hard surface with loose gravel on top, this is not the kind of road surface he likes,” Latvala told RallyJournal.com.
Latvala expects Rovanperä’s pace to improve during Saturday’s stages.
“I think overall Kalle feels more comfortable with Saturday’s stages. I believe he will be able to improve his performance. I think Friday’s stages, in particular, were something he didn’t enjoy,” Latvala said.
Toyota is in a strong position overall in South America, with three drivers in the top four. Competing in the Toyota Rally1 car for just the second time, Sami Pajari had a superb Friday and finished the day in fourth place.
“I told him in the morning that he doesn’t need to have all the best cards on the table yet, so don’t think about it too much. Let’s focus on delivering a solid performance and feeling comfortable. And he has been doing exactly what we discussed in the morning,” Latvala praised the young Finnish driver.
Among the Toyota drivers, Sebastien Ogier dropped out of the lead battle on Friday after hitting a bank and needing to change a tyre. The French star is now ninth, a minute and a half behind the leader.
Without his mistake, Ogier could have been leading the rally.
“I would say Seb was the fastest, but that one mistake cost him a significant penalty,” Latvala noted.
Rally Chile continues on Saturday with six special stages.
