Kalle Rovanpera managed to find a better compromise in the set-up of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and today he showed it in a peremptory manner. The reigning world champion overtook Andreas Mikkelsen and closed the morning lap of today’s stage as leader of the Rally Poland.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver got off to a strong start in the first practice session this morning, when he managed to overtake the Hyundai Motorsport driver to take the lead in the provisional overall standings.
In the subsequent special stages, however, the rivals always remained in contact. Elfyn Evans, second, completed the morning just 4 tenths behind him. Andreas Mikkelsen, on the other hand, despite having lost two positions, is 2.7 seconds behind the Finn. This means that the top three riders in the event standings are in just under three seconds.
Behind them is Adrien Fourmaux, but he is the first to have a gap that is starting to become significant, namely 15″9. The Frenchman from M-Sport managed to leave behind his brand-mate, rookie Martins Sesks, and open up a good margin (14″8), but it will be difficult for him to fight for the podium without encountering errors or technical problems for those ahead of him.
Sesks, for his part, continued his good race so much so as to remain in the Top 5. The Latvian, at the wheel of the only non-hybrid Rally1 car, is fifth and with a still reassuring margin over Thierry Neuville. There is 15″8 between him and the Belgian. The World Championship leader continues to struggle, showing how difficult it is for him to have sufficient pace on fast clay to fight with the best.
During the morning Neuville overtook Gregoire Munster, the bare minimum to try to limit the damage, but it will be difficult to recover almost 16 seconds on Sesks who precedes him, despite still having 7 special stages available before the end of the event.
In WRC2, Sami Pajari continues to dominate and now has a bigger advantage over his closest rival, Robert Virves. The Finn and the Estonian have a 32.6″ gap in favor of the former. Virves, on the other hand, gained a position in SS11, where Kajetan Kajetanowicz made a mistake, damaging a suspension on his Skoda Fabia. The Pole’s mishap has promoted Oliver Solberg to third place, but the Norwegian is just a step away from Virves: there are less than 3 seconds between the two.
The morning lap of today’s stage of the Rally Poland ends here. Now the drivers will be able to take advantage of the mid-day service to prepare the cars for the afternoon lap, consisting of three special stages. The rally will resume with SS13, the 18.50 kilometer Swietajno 2. The first car will enter testing at 4:00 pm Italian time.
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