Kalle Rovanperä emerged from a drama-filled day with a comfortable 36.3 second lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak after the Estonian blitzed stage 12, taking second position overall from Elfyn Evans, who completed the day on the final step of the podium.
The Finn trailed his teammate by 0.6 seconds overnight but took the rally lead after Saturday’s first stage and extended his lead after setting the quickest time in stage 10.
“It’s been a good day,” said Rovanperä. “The afternoon was trickier feeling-wise, but everything is going well. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day – the fight is going to be really tight.”
The major talking point of the day came in stage 10 when Sebastien Ogier understeered off the road and into a tree in a high-speed, fifth gear corner. He later revealed that he had a puncture but was unaware of it as his tyre pressure monitor had malfunctioned. The impact ripped the left front corner off his car but at the time of writing, the #17 GR Yaris was as good as new and ready to challenge for Super Sunday points.
Takamoto Katsuta won two stages and held fourth position, nearly half a minute ahead of Adrien Fourmaux who has 13.9 seconds in hand over sixth placed Sami Pajari. Despite winning the final stage of the day, Thierry Neuville is seventh, followed by Josh McErlean in ninth.
The Irish newcomer had a coming together with a hay bale in stage 10, which modified the right-front bodywork of his Ford Puma, and earned him a five second penalty.
M-Sport Ford teammate Gregoire Munster rejoined after breaking his car yesterday and had a couple of spins in the morning’s damp conditions.
For the championship, as it stands at the end of Saturday’s action, Evans is nine points ahead of Rovanperä. But Sunday awaits…
In WRC2, the dominant player Alejandro Cachon retired on the day’s final stage when the Spaniard ran wide on a left-hander, striking a hay bale and breaking his car’s rear-right suspension.
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