Local hero Kalle Rovanpera (above) held an 8.0s WRC Rally Finland lead on Friday night after an incident-filled opening leg ended with Toyota Gazoo Racing locking out the top-three places.
The two-time and reigning champion, who’s yet to win his home round of the FIA World Rally Championship, headed fellow Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver Elfyn Evans after winning four of today’s nine rain-affected special stages. Sebastien Ogier rounded out the top three, six-tenths of a second further back in his GR Yaris.
Like eight-time champ Ogier, the flying Rovanpera, who was born and raised in Rally Finland’s host city of Jyvaskyla, is running only a part-time schedule in 2024. But should the 23-year-old Finn hang on for a victory on the super-fast stages that make up the “Finnish Grand Prix,” he’ll have swept the WRC’s run of three consecutive high-speed gravel events.
In stark contrast to Toyota’s early domination, arch rival Hyundai suffered a disastrous day, losing two of its i20 N Rally1 cars to crashes. Title hopeful Ott Tanak, who was targeting a fourth Rally Finland win, was forced out by a roll in the morning’s second stage. The heavy impact resulted in co-driver Martin Jarveoja being taken to hospital for precautionary medical checks, where he will remain overnight for monitoring.
Meanwhile, Esapekka Lappi — a Rally Finland winner in 2017 — retired from fourth after hitting a tree which tore the rear suspension from his car. Lappi, who’s another WRC regular taking on only a part-time role in 2024, is expected to restart his i20 N on Saturday.
Rovanpera battled excessive oversteer in the early stages to hold a slender lead of just 0.2s over Evans at the day’s midpoint, but he raised the bar on the repeated afternoon loop to widen that gap as the puddle-covered gravel roads became rutted and even more challenging.
There’s still two days to go, but the omens look good for the home-grown ace as, for the past two years, Friday night’s leader has gone on to win.
“It has been a tricky day, especially with the weather,” Rovanpera said. “Really changeable and difficult conditions, so I am quite happy to have had a clean day.
“Tomorrow will be difficult for sure — I think there has been a lot of rain on those stages also, but we will see how it is in the morning. All the guys are pushing hard and the gaps are really small, so it’s going to be a big fight.”
After the morning’s carnage, WRC points leader Thierry Neuville was Hyundai’s last man standing. Climbing the standings after the retirements of his teammates, plus Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta’s crash on the morning’s final stage, he held fourth overnight, but was hindered by his car’s setup and a time-consuming overshoot in the morning. The Belgian trailed Ogier by 16.9s at day’s end and, as it stands, is set to see his points buffer over title rival Evans shrink.
The lack of a pre-event test meant Adrien Fourmaux had to tweak the setup of his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 on road sections between stages. Holding an overnight fifth with a 42.5s buffer over Sami Pajari, the Frenchman felt he had made good progress with the car by the end of the leg.
For Pajari, who was making his Rally1 debut in a factory GR Yaris, the day was one of two halves. Two spins saw the rising star end the first stage with a damaged rear wing, forcing him to complete the morning’s remaining tests with significantly reduced aero.
However, justifying the hype around the latest “Flying Finn,” he and co-driver Enni Malkonen went on to win the 4.82-mile Ruuhimaki 2 stage in the afternoon — their first fastest stage time at the sport’s top level.
Gregoire Munster completed the Rally1 cars on the overall leaderboard, the Luxembourg driver taking things steady in his Puma Rally1 and building his experience of the fastest rally on the WRC schedule.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Oliver Solberg ended the opening leg with a commanding lead over Jari-Matti Latvala, while several of the category’s big names ran into trouble.
Gus Greensmith, Emil Lindholm and Pierre-Louis Loubet were just some of the leading drivers to fall by the wayside today, with all three suffering accidents on the rain-hit stages east of Jyvaskyla.
For Solberg, who stands in line to extend his WRC2 championship lead, there were no such troubles. Driving a Toksport-run Skoda Fabia RS, the Swede was just half a second clear of Latvala at the day’s halfway point, but an impressive afternoon performance, particularly on the second running of the 11.16-mile Laukaa 2 stage, saw him widen that gap to 24.1s.
Latvala’s performance was impressive in itself considering the Finn, whose “day job” is team principal for Toyota Gazoo Racing, is contesting only his second WRC rally in four years. The 18-time WRC event winner and co-driver Juho Hanninen grabbed stage wins on both passes of the 9.64-mile Myhinpaa test, a Finnish classic.
Saturday is the rally’s longest day, featuring six stages and 89.61 competitive miles, including the return of the jumps and switchbacks that make up the legendary Ouninpohja stage.
WRC Rally Finland, positions after Leg One, SS10
1 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 58m24.7s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +8.0s
3 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +8.6s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +25.5s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1) +48.5s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m31.0s
7 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m52.7s
8 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +3m22.0s
9 Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hanninen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +3m46.1s
10 Robert Virves/Aleks Lesk (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +3m53.3s
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