Rovanperä heads into the overnight halt with a lead of 4.9 seconds over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
“This was a good day. I didn’t make any major mistakes. Everything was quite tightly in place,” Rovanperä summarised Friday.
But it hasn’t been easy. Rovanperä has had to push his car to the absolute limit, and that is, of course, not always very pleasant.
“If the surface is smooth, then everything’s fine, but especially the second loop was really difficult. We’ve been chasing grip and performance, but in those ruts, it doesn’t work. Driving is no longer so clean, and it’s not so enjoyable anymore,” Rovanperä explained.
Although driving hasn’t been the greatest pleasure, the results have still come. That naturally makes it easier to endure the more difficult moments.
“That’s of course always a positive. When you’re in the fight for the lead, you know that at least you’re finding pace from somewhere. In that sense, this has been a positive day,” Rovanperä said.
Tomorrow, Saturday, eight special stages will be run in Rally Finland. The day offers both old and familiar stages as well as some newer additions.
“Tomorrow is a great day. I’m particularly looking forward to those new stages simply because, even on Saarikka, we were able to make a difference. Päijälä again will be one of those stages where everyone just memorises all the corners, and it’s quite wild. Especially here in Finland, the gaps are always so small. You can’t make a huge difference there, but hopefully we’ll be on the pace on those new sections,” Rovanperä planned.
