Rovanpera charges into lead as wet weather hits

Points leader Rovanpera rattled off two stage wins from the four afternoon tests to transform a 18.4-second deficit into a 5.7s margin over Evans heading into Sunday’s final five stages.

Rovanpera started the day 13.6s behind with Evans growing that advantage after winning two of the three morning stages.

But Rovanpera steadily began to nibble away at the gap across the afternoon, before mastering tricky wet conditions on the penultimate stage to grab the lead.  

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta ended the day in third 1m50.1s adrift after leapfrogging Hyundai’s Dani Sordo during the morning, but only 5.7s separated the pair.

Thierry Neuville brought himself back into podium contention in fifth following a strong afternoon display.

Craig Breen reached service as the top M-Sport Ford runner in sixth after moving ahead of team-mate Pierre Louis-Loubet.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux completed the Rally1 field, following retirements for Gus Greensmith, Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb.      

Persistent rain fell as the afternoon loop began to add a further variable to the already tricky gravel stages.

Rovanpera adjusted to the slippery conditions the best as the Finn claimed his fourth stage win of the event on Stage 13, taking 1.9s out of Evans’s lead.

Katsuta set the third fastest time to maintain his strong start to the day to increase his overall margin over Sordo in the battle for third.

After losing almost a minute to a puncture in the morning, Greensmith’s day took a turn for the worse when he clipped a bank with the right rear of his Puma.

The impact took a chunk out of the wheel rim and caused a slow puncture and the Briton retired due to damaged right-rear suspension.

Rovanpera stepped up his pursuit of Evans in the next test, producing a committed run that took a significant 6.6s out of his team-mate’s lead, bringing the deficit to 9.9s.