In the middle of the afternoon lap of this first stage of Rally Finland, Kalle Rovanpera made small but important steps in the overall standings, increasing his lead over Elfyn Evans, the closest pursuer.
On an increasingly muddy surface made more treacherous by the appearance of puddles of various sizes, Rovanpera put his signature on Special Stage 7, the 15.93-kilometre Saarikas 2, increasing his advantage over Evans.
In the next test, PS8, Evans recovered just over a second, doing better than his teammate, but his gap is still wider than the one he had accumulated in the previous specials. The two are separated by 6.5 seconds in favor of the two-time reigning world champion.
Making the situation even more interesting is Sébastien Ogier, who was able to get back to within 3″1 of second place thanks to two excellent times. Today the Frenchman is dealing with the lack of training on the Finnish special stages: his last appearance in this event dates back to 2021.
Evans, therefore, cannot feel at ease, because it is clear that Ogier could have the ambition of taking home an important second place, if he really had the intention of doing the rest of the season aiming for the Drivers’ world title.
In all this, a first, timid ray of sunshine arrives for Hyundai Motorsport. Thierry Neuville took the satisfaction of winning the 15.51-kilometre Special Stage 8 Myhinpaa 2, repeating the success of the special obtained in PS1 yesterday evening. The Belgian is 15.2 seconds behind the podium and it will be difficult for him to get close enough to conquer it, but fourth place can be fine if Evans does not win this weekend.
The positions behind the top four are slowly flattening out. Adrien Fourmaux is fifth ahead of Sami Pajari and Gregoire Munster. Only the Dutchman is 12 seconds behind the Toyota Gazoo Racing rookie, but he doesn’t seem to have the pace to put the Finn under pressure.
In WRC2 Oliver Solberg continues to dictate the law, but behind him the battle for second place has heated up. Jari-Matti Latvala managed to bring the first Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to second place, albeit more than half a minute behind the Norwegian. Also fighting for the class honors are Nikolay Gryazin, third, and Lauri Joona.
#WRC #Rally #Finland #SS78 #Neuvilles #startle #Rovanpera #extends #lead
