TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s Kalle Rovanperä opened up his lead during the longest day of Rally Finland, and will take an advantage of 44.2 seconds over team-mate Sébastien Ogier into the final day of his home event.
As usual on Rally Finland, Saturday took crews onto classic roads south-west of Jyväskylä, close to Jämsä for two loops of three stages totalling 144.22 competitive kilometres. It included a return to the legendary Ouninpohja for the first time since 2017: also the longest stage of the rally at 32.98 km.
Rovanperä began the day with a lead of eight seconds over team-mate Elfyn Evans and proceeded to win all three stages during the morning loop. Remarkably, in Ouninpohja, his stage-winning margin was just 0.1s over Ogier. Still, he returned to Jyväskylä for mid-day service having opened up a lead of 21.9s overall, and would take a further two stage wins in the afternoon as he more than doubled that margin.
With Rovanperä and Ogier in the top two positions at the end of Saturday, TGR-WRT is again on course to take maximum manufacturers’ championship points from the first part of the rally.
Evans was closest to the pace of Rovanperä in the first stage of the morning but would suffer disappointment in the second test when a damaged driveshaft caused him to lose significant time. During mid-day service, it was discovered that the damage had impacted other components which also needed to be changed, resulting in a 2m40s penalty for exceeding the 40-minute service time. After finishing the day’s last stage outside of the points positions, Evans’ car was retired and he will return under restart rules tomorrow.
Sami Pajari has continued his impressive Rally1 debut on his home roads. He ended the day with the third-best time in the second pass of Ouninpohja and in fifth position overall. Following an early end to his Friday after sustaining damage, Takamoto Katsuta returned under restart rules this morning and soon set a pair of top-three stage times as he got back into the rhythm on his adopted home roads.
Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala remains in second place in WRC2 and now seventh overall in a GR Yaris Rally2 entered by TGR-WRT.
Quotes:
Kaj Lindström (Sporting Director)
“We have some mixed feelings at the end of today. On the one hand, a one-two at the end of Saturday is good news for the team but the problem on Elfyn’s car was not; there were some really important, valuable points lost for him today. It was a great performance from both Kalle and Seb – and from Elfyn as well until his issue. But all the drivers did well on these demanding Saturday stages, including Sami and Taka. So on the whole it was a good, strong day with maximum points scored so far but we also know there are a lot of points on offer tomorrow which we need to push for.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It was quite a long and difficult day. In the morning we had a lot of rain and muddy conditions but we kept pushing and our driving remained clean – that was the main thing. The 0.1s gap in Ouninpohja this morning between myself and Seb shows that both of us were driving quite fast and there was not much margin left! In the afternoon our setup was even better; I felt a bit more comfortable in the car and we could achieve even better stage times so I was enjoying it quite a lot. Tomorrow will still be quite tricky, especially the Laajavuori Power Stage, but we’ll try to do our best and bring it home.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This morning started off pretty OK but in the second stage, coming into a junction, we lost drive to one of the wheels and we spun around. From there on it was just a case of nursing the car back to service. The team did a good job to fix the car at lunchtime, but they had more work than anticipated and then the afternoon was just about trying to get through cleanly. It was too big a gap to close to get into the points positions, so now we need to try and salvage what we can from tomorrow.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“We tried to keep it safe today and confirm a one-two for the team. It was a difficult morning with the grip conditions, especially in the morning with some stages that were new to me and I was lacking a little bit of confidence. Ouninpohja was amazing but the other two stages were still wet from rain showers and had slippery conditions. You can’t enjoy those sections so much but we made it through those, did the job needed today and together with Kalle we’re on to bring maximum points for the team. Tomorrow’s target is simple: we have to push flat out, it’s the only way to fully benefit from our performance so far.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“The stages today were really nice, especially Ouninpohja which we enjoyed very much. It wasn’t easy, especially on the second pass with the rain causing trickier conditions. It wasn’t the most comfortable drive but the car was working well and we managed some good times on the morning loop. We just need to work on the feeling in the car further and target some good points on Sunday.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Today it’s been easier to learn about the car. The weather conditions have been much more consistent even with some rain, so I’ve been able to enjoy the stages, get a good feeling with the car and grow my confidence. Ouninpohja really lived up to expectations: the emotions were nice and I had a really nice run. But I can also see where the small gap to Kalle is. You always need to look for areas to improve and find something new; we only lost five seconds in 33 kilometres but we’re still working to make every corner perfect.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h03m53.8s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +44.2s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m23.8s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m49.7s
5 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m19.2s
6 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7m32.4s
7 Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hänninen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8m20.0s
8 Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m52.4s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +8m57.7s
10 Mikko Heikkilä/Kristian Temonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m04.8s
22 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +19m17.5s
46 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +52m30.5s
(Results as of 21:00 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
The final day of the rally on Sunday features two passes of Sahloinen-Moksi – run in the reverse direction to 2023 – and another returning icon, Laajavuori. Two laps of the latter stage will form the rally-ending Power Stage, where up to five extra points will be available in addition to the seven on offer for topping the Super Sunday classification.
Follow us!
Follow TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT:
∇Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TOYOTAGAZOORacingWRC
∇X: https://x.com/TGR_WRC (@TGR_WRC)
∇Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tgr_wrc/ (@TGR_WRC)
∇YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TOYOTAGAZOORacingJPchannel
Rd.9 Rally Finland
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC 2024 Official Partners
