Kalle Rovanpera extended his Rally Finland lead after dominating Saturday morning’s stages, while World Rally Championship title contender Elfyn Evans witnessed his victory bid evaporate.
Two-time world rally champion Rovanpera completed a clean sweep of the loop including the return of the famous Ouninpohja test to open up 21.9s lead.
His fellow Toyota part-time driver Sebastien Ogier holds second after Evans suffered a transmission issue that dropped the Toyota full-time driver to eighth [+6m19.2].
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville moved into third [+58.3s] following the issue for this title rival, with M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux in fourth [+1m26.4s] and Toyota Rally1 debutant Sami Pajari fifth [+1m57.7s].
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi restarted the rally following their Friday retirements.
Dry and overcast conditions greeted crews on Saturday morning, but roads were still damp in places and grip levels remained low, as Gregoire Munster discovered to his cost.
The M-Sport Ford driver slipped off the road 4.6km into Stage 11 [Vastila, 18.94km], running wide at a left-hander which pitched his Ford Puma into a violent roll.
Munster and co-driver Louis Louka, who were sitting in seventh, emerged from the crash unscathed but their rally was over.
The accident briefly red-flagged the stage, which disrupted Pajari’s run and meant he was later given a notional time.
Rovanpera lit up the timing screens once the action resumed to claim his fifth stage win of the rally to date, despite suffering a strange moment at the startline. The Finn was 2.2s faster than Evans, who flirted with a ditch in what he called a scrappy run.
“It was surprisingly slippery, a bit more slippier than I expected but it was the same for everybody,” said Rovanpera, who extended his lead over Evans to 10.2s.
“We had a problem on the startline, the car would start and then shut itself off after three seconds so that was a bit weird.”
Ogier struggled to find grip as he dropped 5.1s, but the 2013 Finland winner was faster than championship leader Neuville, who was fighting a i20 N that he “couldn’t get working”.
The battle for the lead took a dramatic shift when the crews tackled the demanding undulating Paijala [20.19km] test, featuring a much wetter road surface than the previous stage.
Evans’ GR Yaris suffered a suspected transmission problem which appeared to pitch him into a half spin.
The Welshman continued but at a reduced pace, which effectively ended his victory hopes as the cruel misfortune resulted in a 1m28.1s time loss, dropping Evans from second to fifth.
Despite rain intervening for his pass, Rovanpera delivered another impressive time on a road that was seemingly getting slower with very pass. Rovanpera’s stunning effort was outlined by an 8.1s margin over Ogier, who had now inherited second position, 21.8s behind the defending world champion.
Neuville was short on confidence to attack, but clocked the fourth fastest time as he moved into third overall following Evans’ drama. Fourmaux was also fighting his car, but managed to complete the test now in fourth overall.
The highly anticipated return of the full length 32.98km Ouninpohja, after a seventh-year hiatus, tested crews to their limits and provided plenty of entertainment for the thousands of watching fans.
It proved to be a head-to-head battle between Rovanpera and Ogier, with the former edging the battle by a mere 0.1s on his first ever run on this route.
“It is an amazing stage,” remarked Rovanpera. “I did it the first time in a rally car, it is quite hard to enjoy because it can be quite tricky at times, but when you get to the end you can enjoy it.”
Katsuta was third fastest, ahead of Pajari and Neuville, the latter admitting that he was “afraid all run long” and was happy to be at the finish having struggled with handling. Evans, limping through the stage, dropped almost five minutes to fall to eighth.
The stage known for punishing errors did strike again as Lappi suffered a front right puncture following an awkward offline landing from one of the many jumps at the 11.2km mark.
The Hyundai driver, who completed a 45-metre jump at the famous yellow house crest, dropped more than two minutes following the wheel change.
After surviving two wild moments in Ouninpohja, Oliver Solberg headed to service leading WRC2 in sixth overall with Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala trailing the Swede by 18.0s.
A repeat of the morning loop of stages will complete Saturday’s action this afternoon.
