Rovanperä once again had to struggle a great deal with his car, and this was immediately reflected in the times.
At this stage of the rally, Rovanperä is only in eighth place, and the Finn has already fallen well over four minutes behind the rally leader, Hyundai’s Ott Tänak. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville also managed to pull away from the Finn during the morning loop.
“It was quite a difficult morning. The pace isn’t good, and I can’t get into a good rhythm,” Rovanperä lamented.
“It’s been a real battle all the way. There’s not much that can be done,” Rovanperä continued.
Rovanperä has struggled throughout the season to get to grips with the WRC’s new tyre supplier Hankook, and the same issue continues to plague him.
“That’s the same on every stage. Today we’ve been quite slow and not on the pace we should be,” Rovanperä said.
“Just not having the right feeling to go any faster. I can try to push, but then I just don’t have the grip to do it. So yeah, it’s not working at the moment,” Rovanperä added.
Rovanperä’s performance level is currently so low that there’s hardly any point in even looking at the results. That says everything about the situation.
“We’ll try to improve in the afternoon. I haven’t watched any results, so I don’t know where we are. We need to improve,” Rovanperä said sorrowfully.
