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Elfyn Evans has made the most of Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanpera’s absence from the Rally Finland fight with an exemplary display of under-pressure driving through Saturday’s second leg.
With Rovanpera non-starting this morning following his Friday afternoon roll, Evans began Saturday’s leg eager to uphold Toyota honour – and start to put right a largely frustrating season.
But with Thierry Neuville just 6.9s behind after Friday’s running, the prospects of a Saturday stroll through the fast-paced Finnish forests looked far from likely for Evans, who also knew that slipping up would blow a gilt-edged opportunity to profit from a rare Rovanpera DNF.
However, the rain-covered roads during the four-stage morning loop were to Evans’ liking and he charged to four fastest times as Neuville struggled with a Hyundai prone to wheelspin rather than stage wins.
By the time the crews returned to Jyvaskyla for the midday service halt, Evans was 17.7s ahead of Neuville, albeit quick to play down the significance of his advantage.
“We have to continue with our rhythm,” Evans said. “It feels good to drive like this and if the performance is good enough then we have to carry on.”
Evans did just that by continuing his run of stage wins with another three during the afternoon loop. While a more cautious run through the mud of Vekkula let in Takamoto Katsuta for the stage win and end his unbroken run of fastest times, with an overnight lead of 32.1s, Evans was untroubled at the stage finish.
“I took the careful side,” Evans said. “There were a few places where it felt like a sledge and of course if you treat everywhere like that you’re bound to give away time. There’s still tomorrow to come so the focus will be on that now.”
Behind second placed Nevuille, Teemu Suninen and Katsuta have spent leg two battling it out for the final podium spot.
Katsuta was seemingly in control in his factory Toyota only for a spin on the day’s second stage to hand Hyundai-driving Finn Suninen the initiative. But having remained in touching distance of Suninen ever since, third became Katsuta’s on SS15 only for Suninen to respond and retake the place on the next stage. But with Suninen less attacking on SS18, Katsuta overtook to complete the day 6.4s ahead.
Jari-Matti Latvala, back in the WRC for the first time since February 2020, is fifth overnight and with very little to do on a rally away from his Toyota team principal duties with no threat from behind and no possibility of catching the drivers ahead based on pace.
Sami Pajari, who has been linked to a Toyota Rally2 WRC drive in 2024, tops WRC2 after Jari Huttunen stopped with a mechanical failure on SS15. Huttunen had been 1.3s ahead of Pajari when he retired. Oliver Solberg, who hasn’t nominated Rally Finland as one of this WRC2 scoring rounds is sandwiched between Latvala and Pajari in the current order.
Rovanpera, meanwhile, had hoped to restart this morning but having worked into the night, his Toyota mechanics realised the world champion’s Yaris was spent and his first retirement since Croatia Rally in 2021 was confirmed.
“Sadly, the chassis is too badly damaged and we are forced to retire,” Rovanpera posted on social media prior to the start of leg two. “Of course, [I’m] massively disappointed to what happened, but it is what it is. Thanks for the support, we will be back stronger.”
Like Rovanpera, Esapekka Lappi’s home WRC outing was over after his high-speed crash into trees on the first Halttula stage on Friday morning left his Hyundai out of the game.
“Physically, everything is okay; a swollen ankle for me but no broken bones,” Lappi said. “The accident was a pacenote mistake, I was too optimistic for the right-hand corner, we were too fast and we went into the trees. The information from my side was wrong when we did the recce. It is a shame we are unable to re-join the rally for the rest of the event, but the main thing is both Janne [Ferm, co-driver] and myself are fine.”
Sunday’s final leg is based south of Jyvaskyla and includes twin passes of Moksi-Sahloinen and Himos-Jamsa with the first run through the 16.56 kilometres of Moksi-Sahloinen due to begin at 07h53 local time. Himos-Jamsa forms the bonus points-paying Power Stage from 13h15 after a tyre fitting zone from 13h15.
