The second long driving day on Friday did not yet bring any kind of solution to the title fight – nor to the battle for the rally win.
On the final stage of Friday, no fewer than five drivers ran into various problems. Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier, who is fighting for the championship, suffered a slow puncture but still managed to reach the finish of the stage without losing significant time. However, he did concede 0.2 seconds to Kalle Rovanperä, and the Frenchman therefore dropped behind Rovanperä to sixth place overall.
Elfyn Evans also suffered a puncture during the day, and the Welshman had far worse luck than the Frenchman: Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin were forced into tyre-changing duties on special stage 11 and dropped well down the leaderboard.
Nor did the day proceed without problems for Finland’s Sami Pajari. Pajari, in turn, suffered a puncture on special stage 13 and dropped out of the fight for victory. Kalle Rovanperä did not experience quite such dramatic moments, but the two-time world champion’s day can by no means be described as easy.
So there was no shortage of drama – so much, in fact, that the health of Toyota team principal Juha Kankkunen was almost put to the test.
“This has been ups and downs. Perhaps a bit too much for an old heart,” Kankkunen laughed.
Toyota has dominated this WRC season from start to finish and the team has already secured the manufacturers’ title. However, Toyota is not on course to win this rally.
“At least the cars are still in one piece. But unfortunately we dropped out of the top positions, and it’s the first time this season that it has happened,” Kankkunen reminded.
Kankkunen did emphasise, however, that the situation for Toyota’s drivers was already very difficult going into Friday.
“They lost so much time yesterday that they had no chance of climbing back, especially as they had to start at the front anyway. That’s how it goes,” Kankkunen said.
While the WRC front-runners are fighting for the minor places, the young drivers have had the chance to show their abilities. The rally is led by M-Sport Ford’s young prospect Martins Sesks, and Pajari as well as Adrien Fourmaux have also been in the leading battle for almost the entire event. Fourmaux, however, made a major mistake after the final stage of the day and dropped to fourth.
“It’s always good to have young drivers involved. A shame that Sami dropped out – it would have been interesting to see all the youngsters at the front. But in any case, tomorrow looks good, and our boys are still fighting. Which one of them will take the win? It will be very interesting to follow – which one of them is ultimately the best,” Kankkunen summed up.
