Sebastien Ogier claimed his third World Rally Championship victory of the season after long-time Rally Finland leader Kalle Rovanpera rolled out, denying him a home win in a brutal rally.
Eight-time world champion Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais produced a strong drive throughout a demanding Rally Finland affected by changeable weather to seal a 61st career win by 40.1s from championship leader Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, with M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux third 1m14.1s behind Ogier.
While Ogier briefly held the rally lead after stage two on Friday, the event was dominated by two-time world champion Rovanpera who set his sights on becoming the first Finn to win the rally since Jari-Matti Latvala’s triumph in 2015.
Rovanpera snatched the rally lead from Ogier on stage three before then losing it to team-mate Elfyn Evans on the next test as crews faced challenging wet conditions. However, Rovanpera wrestled back the advantage on stage five to lead by 0.2s.
However, once ahead Rovanpera didn’t look back, moving into an eight-second lead over Evans with Ogier 0.6s further back at the end of Friday. On Saturday, Rovanpera left his rivals behind winning five of the six stages including two passes through the famous Ouninpohja stage that made its return after a seven-year hiatus. Rovanpera’s second pass smashed the stage record previously held by Kris Meeke by 23.9s.
A driveshaft failure and lengthy midday service repair that incurred a 2m40s penalty put Evans out of the victory fight and the Saturday points-paying positions. This elevated Ogier, who opted not to attack, into second, 44.2s behind the dominant Rovanpera, who provisionally claimed 18 points for topping Saturday ahead of Ogier [15 points] and Neuville [10 points].
However, the rally was turned on its head on Sunday. Rovanpera had extended his lead over Ogier out to 45.8s after winning the first two morning stages, but drama struck the Finn on the penultimate stage when he clipped a rock in the road which pitched his GR Yaris into a roll and out of the rally. It was the second year in succession Rovanpera had rolled out of the lead at Rally Finland.
The accident occurred moments after Evans crashed on the first corner of the same stage which left the WRC title contender without any points after missing out on the top 10 at the end of Saturday.
This left Ogier to cruise to victory on the final stage to move the part-time driver to second in the championship, 27 points behind Neuville.
Neuville claimed second after a difficult rally that began with the Belgian grabbing an early lead by winning the opening stage. He then dropped down the order when he overshot a junction in stage three losing 13s, before struggling with the handling of his i20 N throughout Friday and Saturday.
Neuville did however extend his championship lead after inheriting 15 Saturday points following Rovanpera’s exit, while rivals Evans and Ott Tanak failed to score points. Tanak’s rally ended on stage three when he lost control and rolled before colliding with a tree, which briefly red-flagged the stage. Co-driver Martin Jarveoja was taken hospital here he spent Friday night before being released.
M-Sport’s Fourmaux was among those to struggle with his car at times in the challenging conditions, but the Frenchman drove smartly to secure third, his fourth rostrum of the season.
Fourmaux finished ahead of the impressive Sami Pajari, who claimed fourth [+1m54.5s] on his Rally1 debut driving a fifth Toyota GR Yaris.
Pajari suffered an excursion on stage two that damaged his car but was able to recover to end Friday with a first WRC stage win in only nine attempts as he triumphed on the Ruuhimaki test. He then backed that pace up by being narrowly beaten on Ouninpohja by Rovanpera and Ogier.
Oliver Solberg took a valuable WRC2 win after finishing an impressive fifth overall [+ 8m15.5s] ahead of Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala making a one-off WRC2 outing.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta ran as high as fourth before he clipped a tree on Friday that ripped his right rear wheel off his GR Yaris. Katusta was able to return to action and won the Power Stage on Sunday.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi took over fourth, but suffered a similar fate when he bounced out of a rut into trees, but topped the Super Sunday standings.
M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rejoined the rally on Sunday after rolling out of seventh on Saturday.
