Rovanperä was in a class of his own on Saturday morning’s loop in the Rally Latvia. The Finnish star of Toyota pulled away from the rest by setting the fastest time on three of the four special stages.
Rovanperä extended his overall lead to over half a minute ahead of his closest challengers, Sebastien Ogier and Martins Sesks.
“We have been driving our own pace without taking risks, so we’ll continue the same way and try to stay at the top speed. It should go well that way,” Rovanperä said upon reaching the midday service in Liepaja.
The only thing that bothered Rovanperä about his morning performance was carrying two spare tyres unnecessarily, as one would have sufficed.
“It affects the feeling more, but it does result in losing a few tenths or seconds per loop. The loop was quite long, so it adds up to several seconds,” Rovanperä calculated the time loss due to the extra weight.
According to Rovanperä, the settings of Toyota’s Rally1 car were better now than on Friday. Thus, driving was smoother, and the clock also favoured the champion’s pace.
“I would say we are in a pretty good zone now. The grip on today’s stages is a bit better, so the car works better in such conditions. Now just the right tyres for the afternoon,” the Finn chatted.
At the same time, Rovanperä already turned his attention to Saturday evening, when the first conditional points of the weekend are up for grabs. Rovanperä doesn’t necessarily need to push flat out to secure 18 points for Toyota, as he has a clear lead over his challengers.
“The afternoon loop is a bit shorter, so we’ll try to get through it sensibly, and then we could get some decent points for the team from Friday and Saturday. That’s the first goal.”
“After that, if everything goes well, we need to start focusing on tomorrow,” Rovanperä planned.
