Rovanperä pulled away from the others during the afternoon loop and now leads the rally by 8.0 seconds over his teammate Elfyn Evans and by 8.6 seconds over Sebastien Ogier.
Rovanperä had a good day, but his teammates posed an unexpectedly tough challenge for the Finn.
“The morning loop was a bit weak. The starting position had more impact than we expected. We also made significant changes to the car’s setup for the afternoon, which resulted in a much better feeling. I guess if we had better settings in the morning, we could have taken more seconds. It would have been an even more positive feeling then,” Rovanperä commented after the Harju special stage that ended Friday.
Rovanperä didn’t sparkle in the morning. The Finn couldn’t pinpoint a clear reason for this.
“I don’t really know. The road slowed down car by car. At least it seemed like that this time as well. Of course, it also started raining, which surely had an impact,” Rovanperä assessed.
Rovanperä created a clear gap to his teammates during the afternoon loop, but many might have expected him to extend his lead even further. However, Evans and Ogier remained close.
“It’s definitely a good fight. Both have driven really well. Especially in the afternoon, they came close, and the gaps are small,” Rovanperä praised his teammates.
Tomorrow, Saturday, there will be six special stages. Among them are the legendary Ouninpohja, which will be driven twice, and Västilä, also driven twice. Rovanperä did not drive Västilä at all last year, and the long Ouninpohja is less familiar to him compared to many others.
“Tomorrow will be a tough day. The loop is quite long overall. We didn’t drive Västilä last year, unlike Elfyn. It will surely benefit him quite a lot. Of course, they have also driven Ouninpohja some years ago many times more than I have. It might be a bit of a challenging day. We will go out to maintain and defend the lead,” Rovanperä planned.
