Rovanperä, together with his co-driver Jonne Halttunen, was forced to change a tyre during Saturday’s penultimate special stage. On that one stage alone, they lost more than two and a half minutes to the leaders. At the same time, the Finnish duo dropped from the rally lead down to sixth place.
“Of course, this is not what we wanted. This weekend there have been many punctures. There wasn’t any clear spot where we had hit something. It must have caught on the edge of the road somewhere, but there wasn’t an impact where you would normally get a puncture,” Rovanperä lamented.
“It was a bad situation, but it has happened now and there’s nothing we can do. The tyre went so early on the stage that we lost a lot of time.”
Hankook tyres have struggled on Paraguay’s fast but rough roads. In addition to Rovanperä, championship contenders Sébastien Ogier, his team-mate, and Hyundai’s Ott Tänak also suffered punctures. However, Rovanperä’s rivals only lost about half a minute. Ogier has even climbed into the rally lead, while Tänak holds fourth place.
“This was a disappointment in terms of the championship fight. There have been too many punctures and almost everyone has had one. It’s not very normal to have so many punctures. It’s not pleasant for the battle, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow from our starting position. It will surely be difficult,” Rovanperä summarised.
For Rovanperä, the situation was particularly tough because the puncture occurred near the beginning of a stage almost 24 kilometres long.
“There was still quite a lot of distance left. It’s pure luck where a puncture happens. Looking back now, we should have stopped immediately to change the tyre. The air escaped so quickly, and I didn’t really know at what point of the stage we were. That’s why we lost even more time,” Rovanperä explained.
“And I don’t know if it would have really affected our situation, whatever we had decided. I doubt it would have made a big difference.”
Rally Paraguay still has four special stages to run on Sunday. Rovanperä trails the leader by two minutes and 23 seconds.
