Rovanpera transformed a 4.3s deficit to overnight leader Neuville into a 4.8s advantage over Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans after Saturday morning’s loop of three stages. It was the fifth lead change of the event to date.
Esapekka Lappi climbed to third some 12s adrift as the three Toyotas capitalised on Neuville’s struggles to find the grip and a costly error during the morning’s final stage. Neuville headed to service 15.1s behind Rovanpera in fourth.
Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg ended the morning fifth overall but is now almost a minute adrift of the lead group after struggling for confidence behind the wheel of his i20 N.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta enjoyed a trouble free run to hold sixth ahead of the M-Sport Ford duo of Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith.
With stages 9 and 13 cancelled last week due to reindeer that had settled in the area, the crews faced a shortened itinerary consisting six stages, three in the morning followed by a repeat of those in the…
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