Rovanperä was still leading the rally on Saturday, but on the penultimate stage of the day he suffered a puncture.
To his great misfortune, the puncture occurred during the longest stage of the entire day – and even before halfway through it. That meant the Finn lost more than two minutes and his fight for victory was over.
Rovanperä threw everything into Sunday and tried to salvage what he could. The ten points on offer on Sunday gave him a boost of motivation.
“That was the only motivation we had,” Rovanperä admitted openly.
“Obviously, I’m wasn’t so happy with the pace notes and driving (on Sunday). The first pass could have been a bit better, but the conditions were quite tricky. I think it was changing a bit for every driver, with some showers here and there,” Rovanperä recalled.
In the end, Rovanperä picked up eight points on Sunday, bringing his total from Paraguay to 16 championship points. Finally, Adrien Fourmaux’s retirement lifted Rovanperä up another position, so the Finn ultimately left Paraguay with a tally of 18 points. That was satisfactory on some level.
“We did okay to get half of those points in the end, eight points. I think that’s not too bad,” Rovanperä concluded.
Next week, Rovanperä heads into Rally Chile only seven points behind Elfyn Evans, who leads the drivers’ standings. In terms of the title fight, nothing is over yet.
