Rovanpera leads Ogier, mechanical issue ends Evans victory bid

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…