Rovanperä drove the five-kilometre Milzkalne stage with the best time, 1.3 seconds ahead of teammate Sebastien Ogier. In the overall standings, the Finnish driver’s lead over Ogier is now 3.7 seconds.
“This one was quite okay, quite enjoyable stage. There will be quite a big cleaning effect today, so let’s see how the guys can be from behind. But it was an okay start,” Rovanperä said.
Latvia’s Martins Sesks, driving a Ford, was the fourth fastest on the stage but moved up to third place overall, overtaking Elfyn Evans. Sesks is only 4.9 seconds behind Rovanperä.
“I was a bit cautious here, but driving this fast rally car you need to start the morning a bit steady because it’s crazy fast. But we enjoy it. It is faster, you want to just drive flat out but you have to use the hybrid thing and it makes it faster,” Sesks said.
In fifth place in the rally is Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, ahead of championship leader Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak. Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux is in eighth place, and Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi is in ninth.
Lappi was over ten seconds behind the leaders in the spectator stage on Thursday evening, but drove the fifth best time on Friday morning, trailing Rovanperä by two seconds.
“It’s fairly okay, it’s so hard to trust the grip. You slide a long time and it makes it difficult but it is very much the same for everyone,” Lappi said.
Rally Latvia will feature six more special stages on Friday. The rally will end on Sunday.
Rally Latvia standings after SS2/20:
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1. | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | 10:00.3 |
| 2. | Sebastien Ogier | Toyota | +3.7 |
| 3. | Martins Sesks | Ford | +4.9 |
| 4. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +6.9 |
| 5. | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +7.3 |
| 6. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +7.4 |
| 7. | Ott Tänak | Hyundai | +9.1 |
| 8. | Adrien Fourmaux | Ford | +11.3 |
| 9. | Esapekka Lappi | Hyundai | +13.3 |
| 10. | Gregoire Munster | Ford | +16.9 |
| 11. | Oliver Solberg | Skoda | +24.6 |
| 12. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +37.3 |
Rally Latvia Itinerary (CET)
Thursday 18.7. 06:31 Shakedown: Cimdenieki (3.58 km) 19:05 SS1: Bikernieki Track (11.13 km) Friday 19.7. 09:00 SS2: Milzkalne 1 (4.99 km) 09:45 SS3: Tukums 1 (27.56 km) 11:00 SS4: Andumi (17.86 km) 12:50 Tyre fitting zone 13:30 SS5: Milzkalne 2 (4.99 km) 14:15 SS6: Tukums 2 (27.56 km) 15:30 SS7: Strazde (17.44 km) 16:20 SS8: Talsi (20.52 km) Saturday 20.7. 07:20 SS9: Pilskalns (18.87 km) 08:35 SS10: Snepele (17.52 km) 10:30 SS11: Ivande (23.04 km) 12:05 SS12: Vecpils 1 (12.64 km) 13:30 Service (40 min) 15:15 SS13: Podnieki (10.09 km) 16:05 SS14: Vecpils 2 (12.64 km) 18:00 SS15: Dinsdurbe (6.64 km) 19:15 SS16: Liepaja City Stage (2.56 km) Sunday 21.7. 07:55 SS17: Krogzemji 1 (18.70 km) 09:05 SS18: Mazilmaja 1 (13.34 km) 10:55 SS19: Krogzemji 2 (18.70 km) 13:15 SS20: Mazilmaja 2 (13.34 km) *Power Stage
