Kalle Rovanperä fell almost seven minutes away from the lead in the World Rally Championship in Japan. The difficulties started with a flat tire on Saturday’s first special test.
Matti Lehtisaari,
STT Sports
Kalle Rovanperä it was a sad day at the World Rally Japan. Rovanperä started the day in third place, but fell to 11th place, almost seven minutes away from the top.
Rovanperä fell out of the top fight already in Saturday’s first special stage, when the Finn’s corner was too long and he crashed into a rock. The Toyota’s right front tire burst in the collision, and it had to be replaced before continuing the journey.
And the difficulties did not end there. Rovanperä crashed his car in the next special test as well.
– There was something on the right side where we already had something, but it wasn’t a big hit. I no longer have a spare tire and the car is not 100% on the right side. It doesn’t turn out as well as it should, Rovanperä conceded a special test in the goal for the World Cup.
Rovanperä was late for the ten starts of the special stage, because the Finn had already changed a broken tire back to the car once. Rovanperä had to survive a journey of more than 50 kilometers to the maintenance area, and you cannot drive with a broken tire on the transitional stretch. There was only one spare tire in Rovanperä’s car.
Rovanperä crawled with a broken tire to the ten finishers of the special stage, driving Hyundai, who drove over a minute’s base time Ott Tänakia slower. The difficulties continued even after the maintenance break with the special tests run. Thus the gap to the top stretched to almost seven minutes.
Watch Rovanperä’s slow sky with EK 10 in the video below
Neuville takes the lead, Lindholm drives towards the championship
Hyundai’s Belgian driver Thierry Neuville rose to the top of the rally on Saturday. There will be enough excitement even for Sunday, when the second driver is Toyota Elfyn Evans is only four seconds away.
Emil Lindholm dominates the WRC2 class and is driving for the championship. Sami Pajari completes the Finns’ double lead, Lindholm’s difference to Pajar is 47.6 seconds. Teemu Suninen is fourth in class.
The World Rally Championship in Japan has been colored by cancellations and suspensions of special stages. The program was renewed on Saturday as well, when EK 13 was cancelled. At the end of the day, the 1.4 kilometer public special test was supposed to be run twice, but was run only once.
SITUATION AFTER EK 14/19
1. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) 1.51.28.3
2. Elfyn Evans (Toyota) +4.0
3. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) +39.9
4. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) +1.04,5
5. Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) +2.46,7
6. Gus Greensmith (Ford) +3.25,4
7. Emil Lindholm (Skoda, WRC2) +4.54,1
8. Sami Pajari (Skoda, WRC2) +5.41.7
9. Gregoire Munster (Hyundai, WRC2) +5.54,3
10. Teemu Suninen (Hyundai, WRC2) +5.56.5
11. Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) +6.41,7
12. Heikki Kovalainen (Skoda, WRC2) +6.55,8