Rovanperä firmly grasped the top spot on Friday, setting the fastest time on every special stage.
Starting Saturday morning with confidence, he further extended his lead on the challenging Sleeping Warrior stage by almost thirty seconds over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
“The morning loop was pretty good. We had a quite nice plan of just taking it quite carefully. Steady pace, no mistakes,” Rovanperä said.
“The time on the Sleeping Warrior was quite good. Everybody had some issues, but I felt I could manage the pace quite well.”
Rovanperä now holds nearly a minute and a half lead over the second-placed Neuville. This puts the Finnish Toyota driver in a position where he doesn’t need to take any risks.
“The afternoon now looks like rain might come, which will again make everything really difficult.”
“The position is good now, but we need to keep the same plan, try to stay out of trouble, and try to do the same job,” Rovanperä planned.
Three more special stages are scheduled for Saturday afternoon following a service break. The rally concludes on Sunday.
