Kalle Rovanperä leads by far the Finnish World Rally Championship after Saturday’s driving day. Toyota’s team manager hopes that Rovanperä will score points on Sunday as well.
Pertti Lappalainen,
Jussi Jäkälä
Ylen Ralliradio follows the Jyväskylä World Rally from start to finish. Listen to the broadcast via this link. You can find the moment-by-moment follow-up of the race here.
Kalle Rovanperä is in the overwhelming lead in the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship after two long days of driving. He leads before the closing day by 44.2 seconds ahead of his teammate Sebastien Ogier.
The third Toyota driver Elfyn Evans suffered from technical problems, due to which the Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville came third in the rally. He is already more than a minute and 23 seconds behind Rovanperä.
– The day went as planned. We drove hard and got good times, Rovanperä summed up to in the service park at the end of the day.
Evans’ Toyota had a broken transmission on EK 12. For Evans, who is third in the World Series, the setback was huge, as he even struggled to win the rally with Rovanperä.
You can find all our video clips of the World Cup rally at Areena at this link.
Rovanperä set the record time for five of the day’s six special tests. He drove his most convincing performance on Västilä 2, when the water rained on Rovanperä’s driving shift, but he was 6.7 seconds faster than Ogier at the finish line.
The situation of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship after the 16/20 EK:
Driving his first rally with a rally1 car Sami Pajari drove a smooth day in challenging conditions. The roads were still very slippery in places and also with deep ruts.
During the day, Pajari was a total of 49.2 seconds behind Rovanpera.
– It feels really great. Ogier’s (Sebastien) the scalp was painfully close. It would have been sweet, Pajari pointed to the legendary Ouninpohja’s last run, when he lost by just 0.7 seconds to the eight-time world champion.
Esapekka for Lapland Saturday was sad like Friday. Lappi, who stopped on Friday, continued the rally on Saturday, but both times in Ouninpohja he had to change his tire.
The first time, my own driving mistake destroyed the tire. The second time it suddenly exploded.
– There is still air in the tire, it is not a flat tire. The frame fell apart and the surface came off and it broke the bow, Lappi experienced another confusing tire failure.
What is Rovanperä’s attack on Sunday?
There are four more special tests ahead on Sunday. Sahloinen-Moksi is a traditional forest special test, but the Laajavuori special test, which is run twice, is completely different, an “artificially” constructed short special test.
For Rovanpera, securing a win is the most important thing.
– Evans and Ogier need more points, so they get permission to try to get them, Rovanperä uploaded to in the service park from Sunday.
However, he said he liked the Sahloinen-Moksi special exam. According to Rovanperä, Laajavuori is a “mickey mouse” and a risk-taker, with whom he wants to avoid risks.
Toyota’s Team Manager, driving a rally2 car in Jyväskylä, Jari-Matti Latvala said that there has been a discussion within the team with the drivers about the World Championship points situation.
According to Latvala, Toyota needs all the points in the team’s World Cup points battle.
– Now it is so difficult to make a difference in team points, Latvala emphasized.
– We have requested that the drivers drive Sunday points. I believe that tomorrow Kalle will also drive for Sunday’s points, he predicts.
He specified that Rovanperä’s race win is not intended to be sacrificed, but the star driver will not leave in the morning to fully secure it.
Sahloinen-Moksi relaxed and full and avoid hitting a rock in Laajavuori?
– Probably so, Latvala stumbled.