Rovanperä built an enormous lead over his teammate Sebastien Ogier, securing the largest possible conditional points haul.
Before Sunday, the gap between Rovanperä and Ogier is a crushing 42.5 seconds. Nevertheless, Ogier also did valuable work for Toyota with his second place of the day.
“The goal was clear, and I am satisfied with it. The day wasn’t perfect for me, but I still managed to achieve my goal,” Ogier summarised.
However, the eight-time world champion had no chance against Rovanperä’s pace. Ogier admired his Finnish teammate’s performance.
“Kalle has been from another planet this weekend, and that is, of course, a good thing for us,” Ogier praised.
“We still have to drive flat out on Sunday due to the new points system to get the maximum benefit from this,” Ogier planned.
Behind Ogier is Ford’s sensational driver Martins Sesks. The Latvian is on track for his first podium finish in only his second main class competition.
“The day was tough and much tougher than we expected. But we got through it, and that is, of course, the most important thing. We didn’t take any risks, just drove cleanly,” Sesks said.
Sesks is holding onto third place with more than a 20-second lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tänak.
“We still just have to focus on our own driving. Today we saw that when we do so, everything else takes care of itself. We will try to maintain our pace, and other things are not in our control,” Sesks stated.
