However, teammate Elfyn Evans has put the double world champion under pressure. Rovanperä managed to close in on the Welshman during the second stage of Saturday morning, but on the final stage of the loop, Evans posted a commanding fastest time.
Heading into Saturday afternoon’s stages, Rovanperä trails Evans by 11.3 seconds. A Toyota 1-2 finish would certainly suit the team, regardless of the order, as the key objective is to beat Hyundai’s drivers in the overall standings. Hyundai currently holds a solid 35-point lead in the manufacturers’ championship.
“I was expecting to enjoy today’s stages a bit more. It’s still still tough for the tyres to keep everything in good condition on these roads. It’s surprisingly tricky. A lot of tyre wear and stuff. So it’s not easy to make the whole loop fast,” Rovanperä explained.
“The last stage was surprisingly bad. The middle one was okay, but the last one we had proper fog for quite a long time. And then even I think proper drizzle, like I felt the ground was wet in some places in the middle of the stage. With hard tyres It’s always quite slippy.”
WRC drivers now rely heavily on memory when driving stages. The co-driver’s pace notes simply confirm the nature of a corner or crest. When the conditions are particularly difficult, like they were on Saturday morning in Chile, relying on the notes becomes even more crucial.
“At that point you start to listen to notes even more because normally you of course count on your memory and your visual. But at that point you need just count on the notes. So of course it changes. You also find much more mistakes from the notes when you are coming to the place without really confirming it with the eyes, then you find always the small things which are not correct,” Rovanperä clarified.
Tyre strategy could play a key role again during Saturday afternoon’s stages, as the weather remains unpredictable.
“Really difficult to say. Yet we still have, luckily a few hours probably until we need to choose. So let’s see. I think the weather can change a lot in the mountains, especially like we saw today. We didn’t really expect this in the morning loop, but it was still there. So let’s see how the weather will be,” Rovanperä added.
