Rovanpera leads Evans after heavy rain causes chaos

WRC points leader Rovanpera headed into the day’s final test trailing long-time leader Elfyn Evans by 10.9s, but ultimately exited the test with an 11.7s overnight advantage over his team-mate.

Evans had been in command, having claimed five consecutive stage wins, before Rovanpera began to close in with two stage wins of his own as intermittent rain showers began to fall in the afternoon.

Rovanpera was fortunate to avoid the heaviest of the rain on the final stage that left the majority of the field scrambling for grip, resulting in chaos and a late lead change.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak managed to escape a wild moment on the final stage to end the day in third, 44.3s adrift, while Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi came home in fourth more than a minute in arrears.

Despite struggling for confidence, team-mate Thierry Neuville completed the loop in fifth ahead of Adrien Fourmaux, who led M-Sport’s charge after Craig Breen retired in the morning loop.

After a dry morning, the forecasted rain finally arrived during the midday service. As a result, the crews faced challenging damp conditions and rutted stages for the afternoon loop.

The conditions initially failed to halt Evans’ charge, as the Welshman skipped through patches of standing water to notch up his fifth consecutive stage win and extend his lead to 19.9s.

Rovanpera was first to tackle the conditions, but the Finn still managed to only drop 1.2s in his pursuit of rally leader Evans. He had been promoted to second when he began the afternoon, after Tanak’s 10 penalty for failing to engage electric power during a designated EV zone on Thursday night.

Tanak was unable to match the two Toyotas at the front in the slippery conditions and lost 6.5s to Evans, while posting the third fastest time.

The 2019 world champion’s teammate, Neuville, continued to struggle and his cautious approach resulted in the Belgian dropping behind a charging Lappi to fifth overall.

Lappi’s resurgence was the result of Toyota fixing a brake issue he suffered in the morning stages. However, the Finn was lucky to avoid a trouble when he hit an anti-cutting device.

There was however drama for Gus Greensmith (M-Sport) and Oliver Solberg (Hyundai), who both suffered punctures. The front-left failure for the latter cost the Swede half a minute, on top of a 10s penalty for a being a minute late out of service.

Sudden sporadic rain showers threw several runners a curveball in Stage 7, but it was Rovanpera who managed to take…