Rovanperä began the second full day of running in fourth place, but immediately in the morning he moved ahead of Katsuta into third. The pair traded blows over the next two stages, and by midday service, Rovanperä held a narrow 0.4-second advantage over his teammate.
Rovanperä and Katsuta are good friends off the stages, so a close on-stage fight suits them both just fine.
“It’s fun to compete against Taka. He had good pace on the morning loop. I’m sure it’s going to be a tight fight this afternoon,” Rovanperä said with a smile.
“It would be nice to continue to fight with Kalle, but this guy is not far behind,” Katsuta added, referring to Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who is a little over ten seconds behind Rovanperä.
“It’s a very hard to fight, but I’m happy that my best friend is also in the fight,” the Japanese driver added.
Rovanperä, Katsuta and Neuville are all fighting over third place, though none of them could quite match the pace of rally leader Ott Tänak on the three morning stages. The Hyundai driver extended his advantage over Rovanperä to 35.8 seconds.
Ahead of Rovanperä sits teammate Sébastien Ogier, who holds a 24-second lead over the Finn. As a result, Rovanperä is focusing more on the threats from behind – Katsuta and Neuville.
“Those two are so close that I can’t be satisfied with anything just yet. We’ll push as much as we can, and hopefully the conditions will be a bit more balanced on the second loop. We’ll see how it goes,” Rovanperä said.
