TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team occupies the top four positions with one day to go at Rally Islas Canarias, with Kalle Rovanperä extending his lead over his team-mates.
Saturday was the longest day of the spectacular asphalt rally with 124.08 kilometres to be driven across seven stages centred around the north of the island of Gran Canaria.
Leading at the start of the day by 26.8 seconds, Rovanperä continued his unbeaten stage winning run with narrow margins over nearest rival Sébastien Ogier in the first two tests of the morning, before a more dominant success by 8.4s in the third and final stage of the loop. It was a similar story in the afternoon, with Rovanperä reaching 12 consecutive stage wins.
Following the short super special that rounded out the day and ran partly inside a basketball arena, Rovanperä’s lead stands at 45.2s over Ogier. Fastest in the super special, championship leader Elfyn Evans is 22.9s further back in third position, with Takamoto Katsuta in fourth, another 35.8s back.
Sami Pajari was running in fourth position and on course to match his best ever finish after a strong performance. That was until he ran wide and hit a wooden barrier near the end of SS12 and was forced to stop with damage. Once the car was returned to service, the decision was taken to retire it from the rally due to the damage sustained.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It has been almost another perfect day for us. Kalle has done another really good job, driving fast but also at a speed where he feels comfortable. Everybody is saying that he is back, but he never went away: the speed and the talent has always been there and it was only a matter of time. What happened to Sami is a pity because he had been driving very well until that point, but these things can happen. We still have four of our drivers in the top four positions, and our car has been working really well here and our drivers have been showing good speed. So we will try to secure this result and fight for all the points tomorrow because we know that we can still face a big fight this season.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This morning the car felt a bit better than yesterday, but we didn’t really seem to gain any time from it. It’s been a bit frustrating not to be fighting closer to the front, but Kalle and Seb have just been a bit faster than us. We were trying to be clean and the pace was OK. We will try to improve and be ready for tomorrow. You have to try to grab every opportunity for points, so we just have to focus on driving well, doing a good job and trying to bring home some points.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Everything has been going really well again today. The stages had a bit of a different style to yesterday and in the first two I was maybe not so comfortable, but I really enjoyed the third one that was more flowing. The afternoon was especially good: we made some really small changes to the car and it felt even better, which was nice. I hope we can have the same feeling tomorrow and that everything continues to come comfortably, because we would need to try and take as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s been good fun to drive the car on these beautiful roads again today. Again, Kalle has had something more than the rest of us but I could achieve my main target to be secure in P2. We have been making some good adjustments on the car and the balance has been suiting me better and better. Now we need to continue like this tomorrow, which will be an important day because we need to make use of this pace and collect some more points for the team.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today was much better than yesterday. We definitely made a step forward. I was quite happy with the car. I feel sorry for Sami that he had to stop because he was doing a very good job. Now I just need to keep focused tomorrow from the first stage and keep pushing. I hope to find a bit more comfort and a bit more pace, but I don’t think we need to change too much.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“We were having another nice and clean day. The pace was coming naturally and it was enjoyable in the car. Unfortunately in SS12 we were a bit too fast in one long corner. I’m not sure what happened because I think I did the same that I did in the morning, but we simply had too much speed and hit the fence. It’s always a pity if things go this way but if we are starting to match the times of the top drivers, then things like this can happen easily. We just need to take the positives from this event and try to pick up where we left off on the next event.”
End of day two (Saturday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h22m17.3s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +45.2s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m08.1s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m43.9s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m09.6s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m15.2s
7 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m37.3s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +5m45.9s
9 Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m04.7s
10 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +6m12.3s
Retired Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1)
(Results as of 22:30 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
The rally concludes with five stages in the south of the island near Maspalomas, which will host the podium ceremony. Two stages in the mountains above the town will both be run twice, separated by a short super special on a nearby go-kart track. The second pass of the Maspalomas stage hosts the rally-ending Power Stage.
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