The Toyota driver came under pressure from Hyundai’s Tanak after losing almost a minute to the 2019 world champion following a front left puncture on Stage 11 earlier this morning.
Tanak managed to close to within 13s of Rovanpera during the afternoon before the rally leader fought back winning the final stage of the day, his seventh fastest time of the event, to extend his overall lead to 19.9s.
Tanak emerged as Rovanpera’s nearest rival after his Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville was hit with a one minute penalty overnight for speeding on a road section that dropped the Belgian from second to fourth overall.
M-Sport-Ford’s Craig Breen ended the day in the final podium position but only has slender 4.9s advantage over Neuville in fourth. Neuville started the day 28.8s behind Breen but produced a stirring fightback despite battling against an engine issue.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ended the day in fifth after moving up a position following Oliver Solberg’s crash on stage 9, that resulted in his Hyundai catching fire. Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson escaped the incident unharmed.
Takamoto Katsuta was the last of the Rally1 cars, to have completed the full distance thus far, in sixth.
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
For the first time this weekend crews faced sunny and dry conditions for the first of the afternoon’s stages, a repeat of the test that was cancelled after Solberg’s high-speed crash.
Retuning to the action after a collision with a boulder ended his Friday early, Esapekka Lappi notched up his second stage win of the day as the Toyota driver pipped Neuville to the fastest time by 0.7s.
Neuville’s time arrived despite his Hyundai suffering from an engine problem that limited him to 40% throttle for the final five kilometres.
Battling a gearbox issue, Tanak took more time out of rally leader Rovanpera, cutting the overall deficit to 13s as the latter…
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