There was little doubt about Kalle Rovanpera’s intentions. The Rally Finland host doesn’t want to leave even crumbs to his opponents.
The double world champion made the best possible start to the final leg of Rally Finland, winning the 14.27km Special Stage 17 Sahloinen – Moksi 1 ahead of the No. 33 GR Yaris Rally1 of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.
Rovanpera stopped the clock at 8’33″6, four tenths better than his teammate and one second better than the best Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in this stage, driven by Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm.
Also very close was Sébastien Ogier, fourth at 1″4 ahead of the fourth official Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston, who completed the top 5 of the stage.
This result is important for Evans, because it allows him to be second in the Super Sunday standings behind the usual Rovanpera and – at least for the moment – to recover 4 points on Thierry Neuville, sixth.
The Belgian left with the same problems of confidence with the car already seen during the weekend, so the Welshman will have to do everything he can to try to snatch as many points as possible and make sure not to lose too many in view of the World Championship.
Adrien Fourmaux and Sami Pajari both suffered scares. The M-Sport driver found himself with two wheels in a ditch after going wide from a left-hand bend, but the four-wheel drive of his Puma helped him return to the test without damage.
Pajari, instead, went completely off the road, finding himself wading through a field of only grass. For this reason, after an excursion lasting about fifteen seconds, he returned to the test, also managing to complete it without problems.
As for WRC2, great time by Jari-Matti Latvala with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. The Finn, second in the overall standings of the category, recovered 9 seconds on the leader Oliver Solberg, but he is 38″4 from the leader. Therefore it will be very difficult for him to complete the comeback with only 3 stages to go until the end of the event.
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