Rovanperä faced an intense challenge from his teammate Sebastien Ogier. The teammates drove the over 30-kilometre stage almost identically, but in the end, Rovanperä clocked the fastest time by a mere 0.1 seconds over the Frenchman.
“That’s quite tight then! Beginning of the stage I could have done better, not so clean there and first time on this long Ouninpohja. At the end it was clean and nothing crazy. It’s a quite amazing stage, I did first time with a rally car, hard to enjoy because it’s so tricky, but it’s nice to finish,” Rovanperä summarized at the stage finish.
Toyota secured a triple victory on Ouninpohja, with Takamoto Katsuta being the third fastest, eight seconds behind Rovanperä.
Sami Pajari, driving a Rally1 car for the first time, also performed excellently on the legendary stage. He was the fourth fastest, 12.2 seconds behind the leader.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was only the fifth fastest, 18.6 seconds off Rovanperä’s pace. The Belgian was visibly disappointed at the stage finish.
“I don’t know. It’s scary and I was afraid all the run, I was happy when we were at the finish. I don’t know what to do, we’ve tried everything,” Neuville said.
Hyundai’s dreadful weekend continued as Esapekka Lappi suffered a puncture.
“We jumped too much, just slid wide. This was a complete disaster, no grip at all, very difficult. It looks good, but it’s not,” Lappi lamented.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans experienced technical problems but managed to reach the stage finish. The Welshman had already encountered transmission issues on the previous stage. Evans dropped to eighth in the overall standings.
In the overall standings, Rovanperä’s lead increased to 21.9 seconds. Due to Evans’ troubles, Neuville moved up to third but is now nearly a minute behind the leader. M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux remains fourth, and Sami Pajari has moved up to fifth overall.
In the WRC2 class, Jari-Matti Latvala set the fastest time on Ouninpohja. However, Skoda’s Oliver Solberg leads the class by 18 seconds. In the overall standings, both Solberg and Latvala have overtaken the struggling Evans.
Rally Finland will have three more special stages after the service break on Saturday. The competition ends on Sunday.
Rally Finland standings after SS13/20:
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | 1:31:15.1 |
| 2. | Sebastien Ogier | Toyota | +21.9 |
| 3. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +58.3 |
| 4. | Adrien Fourmaux | Ford | +1:26.4 |
| 5. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +1:57.7 |
| 6. | Oliver Solberg | Skoda | +1:45.5 |
| 7. | Jari-Matti Latvala | Toyota | +5:52.6 |
| 8. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +6:19.2 |
| 9. | Robert Virves | Skoda | +6:25.0 |
| 10. | Mikko Heikkilä | Skoda | +6:26.9 |
| 11. | Lauri Joona | Skoda | +6:34.3 |
Rally Finland Itinerary
Thursday 1.8. 09.01 Shakedown: Ruuhimäki (4.12 km) 18.05 SS1: Harju 1 (3.48 km) Friday 2.8. 07.13 SS2: Laukaa 1 (17.96 km) 08.20 SS3: Saarikas 1 (15.93 km) 09.35 SS4: Myhinpää 1 (15.51 km) 11.05 SS5: Ruuhimäki 1 (7.76 km) 14.10 SS6: Laukaa 2 (17.96 km) 15.17 SS7: Saarikas 2 (15.93 km) 16.32 SS8: Myhinpää 2 (15.51 km) 18.05 SS9: Ruuhimäki 2 (7.76 km) 19.05 SS10: Harju 2 (2.01 km) Saturday 3.8. 08.05 SS11: Västilä 1 (18.94 km) 09.05 SS12: Päijälä 1 (20.19 km) 10.05 SS13: Ouninpohja 1 (32.98 km) 14.35 SS14: Västilä 2 (18.94 km) 15.35 SS15: Päijälä 2 (20.19 km) 16.35 SS16: Ouninpohja 2 (32.98 km) Sunday 4.8. 07.55 SS17: Sahloinen-Moksi 1 (14.27 km) 09.05 SS18: Laajavuori 1 (4.35 km) 10.17 SS19: Sahloinen-Moksi 2 (24.27 km) 12.15 SS20: Laajavuori 2 (8.77 km)* Power Stage
