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Kalle Rovanpera’s World Rally Championship title defence was turned upside down – quite literally – on Rally Finland’s opening afternoon when a high-speed crash put him out of his home event.
Leading by 5.7s having claimed five stage wins in succession, Rovanpera was 11.1 kilometres through the 15.51-kilomete Myhinpaa rollercoaster-style stage when he ran wide, hit a bank and rolled.
The 22-year-old and co-driver Jonne Halttunen clambered out of their overturned factory Toyota Yaris uninjured, but their hopes of a first Rally Finland win – and the first home victory in six years – were over.
“It was a stupid crash,” said Rovanpera, who started the event 55 points ahead in his bid to win the WRC title for a second year in a row. “We just went into one right-hander and the speed was fine and after the braking it felt the corner was going to be good. I didn’t expect anything to happen [but there] was a big slide that I couldn’t correct. Normally you go through somewhere fast and you know you made a mistake but it went and that was it. I tried to correct it and couldn’t do it.”
Elfyn Evans took full of advantage of his team-mate Rovanpera’s misfortune to complete the eighth Myhinpaa test leading by 10.9s. But Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was faster through the run and scored two more stage wins before the day was out to close to within 6.9s of the Briton heading into Saturday’s second leg.
“Overall it’s been an okay day,” said Evans, who suffered a half-spin on the rain-hit, day-closing Harju superspecial. “We’re pretty happy overall and obviously we’ve still got a lot of driving to do tomorrow.”
Neuville was 2.8s quicker than Evans through the mixed-surface 3.48-kilometre run, a performance that could prove decisive as he bids to win Rally Finland for the first time.
“It was a good stage but on the first hairpin I stuck in second gear and had to push the clutch to get speed,” Neuville said. “Other than this it was a clean run.”
Takamoto Katsuta is third for Toyota, 16.4s behind Evans, having won Friday’s first stage with Teemu Suninen the top Finn in fourth, 12.4s behind Katsuta.
“It’s been super-tricky conditions with the rain and the grip changes but I have been happy with the car, that’s a good thing,” said Suninen. “The dream is still alive to get the podium but we need to have a good Saturday.”
Switching from his role as Toyota team principal for his first WRC appearance since Rally Sweden in February 2020, three-time Rally Finland winner Jari-Matti Latvala is in fifth position after 10 stages. “Generally it’s been a very good day and we can be very pleased with the performance,” said the 38-year-old, who is being co-driven by Juho Hanninen.
Esapekka Lappi was in fourth, 9.2s off the lead, when he crashed into a tree 3.5 kilometres from the start of Halttula 1.
Overnight leader Ott Tanak won’t restart on Saturday after he retired his broken Ford Puma on SS3. “In a very fast place, it seems like we touched bedrock or something on the road in a compression,” the M-Sport driver explained. “After Estonia this isn’t how we wanted this week to go. It’s a shame we can’t continue but the car is too damaged for us to carry on.”
Pierre-Louis Loubet crashed his Puma on the same stage to complete a miserable morning for the British team.
While hopes of an outright home win are all but over, Finnish drivers have been on fine form in WRC2, which Jari Huttunen leads with a margin of 12.9s over Sami Pajari, who took the category lead on SS2 and held it until he was slowed by a puncture on SS9.
The all-new Vastila test is first up on Saturday’s second leg from 08h05 local time. It’s one of four double-use stages on the itinerary, which also includes the 20.65-kilometre Vekkula run, the rally’s longest stage.
