Kalle Rovanpera shows no signs of slowing down her pace. On the terrain he knows best, similar to the one he grew up on, in Finland, he has changed pace and is heading towards staging the perfect day at Rally Estonia 2023.
The reigning world champion, after winning the first 4 races this morning, repeated by winning the first two of the afternoon lap, the 11.73 km PS13 Elva 1 and the 16.48 km PS14 Kanepi 1, further increasing his advantage which became significant after the puncture which braked Neuville in the middle of the PS12.
Thanks to these last two special successes, Rovanpera increased his advantage over Thierry Neuville, the first and only follower of the weekend, to 27″7. The Belgian, for his part, did his best, obtaining two second places, but not enough to put pressure on the reigning world champion.
The Belgian also had to try to rebuild a good lead against Esapekka Lappi and Elfyn Evans again due to a loss of tire pressure in SS12. Mission successful, because now his margin is back to close to 10 seconds after two excellent races.
The fight for the third step of the podium continues. Esapekka Lappi always prevails, always slightly faster than Elfyn Evans in almost all the stages. In the last two the Hyundai Motorsport Finn built a margin of 3″7, but not enough to feel comfortable.
Also noteworthy is the problem that forced Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston in SS14 to move their official GR Yaris Rally1 from the pitch dedicated to Time Control at the end of the special. The Japanese car’s engine had stalled, with the gearbox stuck for a few minutes. Fortunately, the Japanese managed to get it going again after a few interventions. We’ll see if he’ll be able to continue the stage or if, instead, he’ll have to stop again due to the same problems.
In WRC2 Andreas Mikkelsen pulled away from his rivals, bringing his margin to 18″5 from the first of his pursuers, teammate Sami Pajari. Gus Greensmith occupies third place in his class, but second place is not far off: just 5″6.
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