Rovanperä’s night attack leaves Sweden rivals behind
Five different drivers led this second round of the FIA World Rally Championship in Friday’s preliminary stage, but the Finn took control for the second time on Saturday morning and averted an attack from Toyota GR Yaris teammate Elfyn Evans.
Rovanperä led Evans by just 1.2 seconds with two speed tests left. As night fell, he increased the pace further to win both stages and extend his advantage to 8.3 seconds over the Welshman with Sunday’s short final distance left.
Rovanperä relegated overnight leader Thierry Neuville in the opening special stage and was almost five seconds to the best at the middle of the day. Evans was avenged on the second pass by the roads just to give his colleague a potentially decisive blow in the dark.
“I knew that when we lost a little on the first stage of the afternoon, we needed to fight back,” Rovanperä explained. “It should always be 100 percent commitment, but in the last stage I think it was 105 or 110 percent! It was really difficult conditions and I am happy to manage without mistakes. Tomorrow it will still be a big fight.”
Evans won two of the six stages compared to Rovanperäs’ treble but almost threw away his chances in the last corner of the final test. He plowed through a snow bank at exactly the point where the target clock was placed and finished the last meters to the stop line on a road parallel to the stage.
Neuville stayed on the heels of the two Toyota drivers until an overrun in the morning’s final test cost 10 seconds and relegated him to fourth. A lively recovery lifted him back to third, but he finished 21.7 seconds off the lead in his Hyundai i20 N.
The Belgian had 4.2 seconds in hand over the third GR Yaris from Esapekka Lappi. The Finn dropped out of the lead battle during the day and closed almost 1 min 20 sec from the similar car from Takamoto Katsuta.
The Japanese driver benefited from a gas problem for Oliver Solberg who lost 90 sec after limping through the last stage of his i20 N. Solberg also received a penalty of 2 min and 40 sec for being late for the test after working with to repair the previous connection section.
Video: Evans then survives horror on Saturday
Gus Greensmith turned six in a Ford Puma. He took two places in the final stage due to Solberg’s problems and an engine problem for teammate Adrien Fourmaux, which cost the Frenchman almost five minutes and released him from the top list.
Solberg was 2 min and 31 sec on operation as seventh with WRC2 leader Andreas Mikelsen, Ole Christian Veiby and Nikolay Gryazin who completed the top 10.
Two stages northwest of Umeå are run twice in Sunday’s final, a total of 56.84km. The final test is the bonus point-paying Wolf Power Stage.
• Full coverage from Rally Sweden is available at WRC + All Live hereincluding each stage broadcast when it takes place, as well as important interviews, features and expert analyzes from the service park.