The second race weekend of the series, held in New Zealand, got officially under way on Friday at the Taupo Motorsport Park, with three practice sessions on the schedule. Across the three half-hour sessions, Rovanperä was unable to fully match the pace of the frontrunners.
In Thursday’s unofficial practice sessions, run in wet conditions, Rovanperä managed a best position of sixth. However, in the official practice sessions, the Finnish star did not break into the top ten. His time deficit stabilised at just over one second in each session.
The two-time World Rally Champion was nevertheless able to significantly improve his fastest lap times over the course of Friday. In the first practice session, his best time of 1:26.079 was good enough for 13th place. In the second session, Rovanperä finished 15th but improved his lap time by more than three tenths of a second.
In the final practice session of the day, Rovanperä again posted a quicker benchmark, a 1:25.386. This time, the result placed him 16th among the 19 drivers.
In terms of positions, there is still progress to be made, but the gap to the front was not alarming. In the final practice session, Rovanperä was 1.164 seconds adrift of pacesetter Ryan Wood.
Wood dominated the proceedings during Friday’s practice sessions. The New Zealander was fastest in two sessions and set the second-fastest time in the remaining one.
A total of four race starts will be contested at the Taupo Motorsport Park over Saturday and Sunday. Saturday begins with qualifying, followed by two races. The same format will be repeated on Sunday.
The first qualifying session will take place late on Friday evening Central European Time.
