Rovanperä set the fastest time on all three morning stages, doubling his lead in the rally.
He leads the rally before the afternoon loop by 21.9 seconds over teammate Sebastien Ogier. Rovanperä was also helped by Elfyn Evans’ technical issues, which dropped him to eighth overall. Before his technical problems, Evans was in second place.
“The morning felt pretty good. It’s always better this way. The first two stages of the morning had slightly tougher conditions, but we still got good times on them,” Rovanperä summarized.
Saturday morning began with the Västilä special stage. Rovanperä didn’t drive Västilä last year as he had to retire by then.
“It wasn’t an easy start to the morning, especially knowing that Elfyn drove it last year. However, I managed to get a good time there, so I’m quite satisfied with that. Päijälä also went well. I’m quite satisfied with those two stages,” Rovanperä recounted.
The morning loop ended with the legendary Ouninpohja special stage, driven in its longer version this time. Rovanperä had predicted difficulties for the legendary stage yesterday, but the “flying Finn” still set the fastest time on Ouninpohja. The gap to his teammate Sebastien Ogier was a princely 0.1 seconds.
“Usually, such a small gap means that both are driving quite fast. It was a small gap, but it didn’t go badly. We drove it for the first time, and Seb has driven it quite a few times,” Rovanperä commented calmly.
There is still room for improvement. It will also help to get better notes.
“There was actually quite a bit of work with the notes. There weren’t any real incidents, but there are always small surprises when driving such an insanely difficult stage,” Rovanperä admitted.
Ouninpohja will be driven a second time in the early evening. Rovanperä’s notes will have some adjustments.
“I’ll need to watch a few spots on video and refine them a bit. Not everything can be captured in the notes.”
