Rally | Kalle Rovanperä drives second in Monte Carlo, the day ended perfectly

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä starts Saturday from second place in the World Rally Championship season-opening Monte Carlo Rally. A stable mate Sebastien Ogier is 36 seconds ahead of Hyundai Thierry Neuville 1.9 seconds behind the Finnish teenager.

Rovanperä, who starts the season as the reigning world champion, took his first special test victory of the season when he left Neuville by 1.3 seconds and Ogier by 3.1 seconds in the last stage of the day and the eighth stage of the rally.

“I just tried to drive a clean EK. The car felt better than in the morning,” Rovanperä summed up his World Series ek victory in the website’s live tracking.

“Good ek again, but it’s clear that we can’t get to the same times (with Toyota), I don’t know why. I’m trying hard and we now have the same type of tire choices. We should be higher, but we’re not,” thought Neuville.

Ogier has run the bases in six of the eight special stages of the rally.

“I am very satisfied. The risk of flat tires was high on this ek, so I took it a little slower. I’m just happy that I was able to bring the car to the finish line today,” said Ogier, who is looking for his eighth Monte victory in his amazing career, during the live coverage.

M-Sport by Ford Ott Tänak runs fourth, he has about 18 seconds behind Rovanperä. Fifth is Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and sixth by Hyundai Dani Sordo.

Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi is eighth. There is almost two minutes behind the leader Ogier and seventh place Toyota Takamoto Katsuta almost 25 seconds.

“It has been very challenging to really understand what should be done differently to make the times better. Well, this ek seems to be better for me, but with all the other cuts we lose more and more. During the night break, we have to think about what we can do. Tomorrow is a new day,” said Lappi about his difficult Friday.

The rally continues on Saturday with six special stages, the first of which starts at 9:24 a.m. Finnish time.