The Finn made a small but costly mistake on the second stage of the morning loop. After a small bump, Rovanperä’s Toyota ran wide in a corner and clipped a guardrail.
The damage was severe enough to cost him more than two minutes on that stage – and even more on the next one.
If there was any positive takeaway from the morning, it was that Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen managed to nurse their GR Yaris back to service. By then, however, they had already lost over five minutes to the rally leader.
“The morning started quite well, but on the middle stage we hit a guardrail. The rear suspension broke there. We tried to fix it, but there was no way to get it fully right without new parts. At least we managed to get through the loop, and now the car can be properly repaired in service,” Rovanperä said.
Rovanperä believes the error was caused by excessive speed.
“Probably I had a bit optimistic pace note for that corner and the car slid to the rail on the outside. It didn’t really feel like a big hit, but probably just one of the poles of the rail then touched the wheel and broke the suspension,” he explained.
Rovanperä is currently 23rd overall but still has every chance to climb back into the points. However, his situation in the title race has taken a major hit.
He now shares second place in the World Rally Championship standings with Sébastien Ogier, while Elfyn Evans leads by 13 points over his Toyota teammates.
After four stages of Rally Japan, Ogier holds the overall lead with Evans in second place. The pair have a chance to pull clear of Rovanperä before the season finale, though there is still a long way to go in Japan.
Rovanperä, however, has not given up on the title fight.
“Well of course the gap is big, but now we fix the car and just keep driving. Let’s see what we can gain here. Hopefully we’ll get a few points at the end of the rally and go on,” he said.
