Kalle Rovanperä and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team lead a close fight for victory on their home roads at Rally Finland.
After Thursday evening’s opening super special in the centre of host city Jyväskylä, the action moved to the high-speed forest stages to the north-east. After an extended period of hot weather in Finland, the stages would be loose and dry in the morning, before heavy rain arrived ready for the afternoon loop.
The day began with a stage win for local rising star Sami Pajari in Laukaa, one year on from his maiden fastest time on debut in Rally1 machinery. He was just 0.1 seconds quicker than team-mate Takamoto Katsuta – and the gap was exactly the same when Pajari also won the fourth and final stage of the loop in Ruuhimäki to end the morning third overall.
Rovanperä meanwhile was fastest in the two middle stages of the loop as he opened up a small lead of 4.4s, with the top seven still covered by less than 10s. He won the same two stages in the more challenging mixed conditions of the afternoon and ended the day with a lead of 4.9s over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
Katsuta secured his 50th WRC stage win in the first stage of the afternoon as he moved up to the head of a close fight for second. He finished the day fourth overall, just 0.4s behind Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) and within 8.1s of the lead. Pajari is one place and 7.6s further back after a strong and solid day in his TGR-WRT2 entry.
Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier were both inside the closely matched top seven in the morning, despite experiencing some road cleaning running second and third on the loose stages. With standing water in places they would concede some more time in the afternoon, with Ogier 1.9s behind Pajari in sixth and Evans a further 8.4s back in seventh.
Following its debut public run on Thursday evening’s first pass, the GR Yaris Rally2 H2 Concept completed another demonstration run through the Harju stage at the end of the day. Juha Kankkunen, Deputy Team Principal, was once more at the wheel of the hydrogen-engine car alongside Masanori Ito, a producer at leading Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi, which has been sharing the excitement of rallying with Japanese audiences for many years.
The GR Yaris Rally2 car leads a close WRC2 contest in the hands of Finland’s Roope Korhonen (Rautio Motorsport). Georg Linnamäe is third (RedGrey) just 5.5s from the lead with Jari-Matti Latvala, Team Principal of TGR-WRT, in fourth having led the way until hitting heavy rain in the afternoon.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“I think we can be happy with how the day has gone. Kalle came back to service smiling, which is really good to see after Estonia when the confidence wasn’t so high. On these fast rallies you need to be confident and push flat out and that’s what he did today, and it’s good to see him leading. Taka and Sami were also very quick today and it was really nice to see them winning stages and up there in the top places. Elfyn and Seb drove well as well: it was not easy for them with the weather this afternoon and still the gap to the front is not too much. I’m sure there’s two more exciting days to come for the drivers and the fans.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“We had a good start this morning. There was a little bit of cleaning with the loose gravel like we expected after the hot and dry weather. I think we were pretty strong considering and the times were really close. Unfortunately the afternoon was quite tricky after the rain with a lot of standing water in the ruts, so the conditions didn’t really work in our favour. So a bit disappointed with the day overall, but tomorrow’s a big day and there can still be some surprises with the weather, so we’ll just keep doing the best we can.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a good Friday for us. It’s nice to be fighting for the top positions and there’s a lot of people cheering for us, so we’re enjoying it. The feeling behind the wheel is still maybe not the best, but we have been pushing hard and we have been able to be fast: we’ve been doing a lot of work to find more pace and it seems to be better. This afternoon was tricky after the rain came in but still we managed to do some good times and hold onto the lead, and hopefully we can continue in a good way tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“The conditions haven’t been easy today. This morning in the dry there was a bit of cleaning for us, and maybe I wasn’t committed enough in a few places and lost a bit of time. This afternoon the rain was also a bit challenging for those of us at the front, but it wasn’t too bad. There’s a couple of things that could have been a bit better, but we’re still not that far from the podium places and that’s what we need to fight for tomorrow.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I had quite a good feeling from the start this morning. I struggled a bit on some stages but we made some small changes on the car and it felt better straightaway. When the rain came for the afternoon I felt it was time to push: I immediately had a good feeling and set the fastest time. After that the feeling was still good, there were a few tricky ruts and bumps and I lost some time from that. But still the gaps are small, there’s a long way to go and I’ll keep focused and keep pushing.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It’s been a really solid day for us. The morning was really good, with two stage wins and to be up in third place overall, and still there were some places where I felt I could improve. This afternoon the conditions were not so easy, but still we are not too far from the lead. Everyone is really close and it’s hard to make big differences. It’s really cool to be in the fight on our home rally, and it’s nice how much the crowd is cheering, so I’m sure there’s another two days of enjoyment to come.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 56m31.6s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +4.9s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +7.7s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +8.1s
5 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +15.7s
6 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +17.6s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +26.0s
8 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +40.5s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m06.0s
10 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m07.2s
(Results as of 21:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally with 142.16 competitive kilometres to be tackled across a route that takes crews south-west of Jyväskylä for more classic roads in Västilä and Päijälä as well as new-look Parkkola and Leustu tests.
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