Kalle Rovanpera overcame a 5s penalty at the start of the day to eventually close in on the FIA World Championship title by claiming the top spot at the close of Saturday’s running with a 29s gap to teammate Sebastian Ogier.
There was drama before anyone turned a wheel on Saturday as three drivers were hit with penalties for going over the maximum energy allowance for the hybrid boost. Rovanpera, Thierry Neuville, and Ott Tanak all got hit with 5s penalties for the boost values on SS1. This meant that Tanak fell behind Elfyn Evans, whilst Neuville and Rovanpera kept their positions.
Saturday’s stages were characterized by wet and muddy roads for the duration of the six tests but Rovanpera carved through the field whilst taking two stage wins in the afternoon to cement the lead he assumed by the mid-morning service.
The Finn commented: “A great day…I can be really happy with what we did in these extremely difficult conditions. We pushed really hard, and I am happy.”
Rovanpera, who was also celebrating his birthday today, had further good news regarding his title push as his closest rival, Ott Tanak was given a further penalty during the running. Once again Tanak, Neuville, and this time Oliver Solberg were penalised for the same offense that caught them out earlier on. They were given 10s added to their times which left Tanak 46.4s behind Rovanpera in third.
Although Rovanpera was having a great day, it wasn’t so smooth for Ogier. The Frenchman incurred a 10s penalty for arriving late to SS12, however, due to other penalties throughout the field he would still finish the day in second. Unfortunately, Evans had to retire his car with roll cage damage after he went off on the first pass of Puhoi.
Neuville and Solberg would finish fourth and fifth respectively however the Belgian was over a minute back from his teammate Tanak.
Takamoto Katsuta slid off the road on the penultimate stage when he was suffering from a misfire which allowed Solberg to take fifth.
Gus Greensmith was running fifth after SS9 however on the following stage he rolled his car after getting into a ditch at the exit of a left-hand turn. After the mechanics looked at the damage, they elected to retire the car.
Top 6 after Saturday:
- Rovanpera 2hr 28min 26.3s
- Ogier +29.0s
- Tanak +46.4s
- Neuville +1min 41.4s
- Solberg +3min 34.9s
- Paddon (WRC2) +8min 51.0s
