WRC – Dominant Rovanperä takes Poland advantage

Kalle Rovanperä sits on the cusp of a probably extraordinary ORLEN eightieth Rally Poland victory after he dominated Saturday’s second leg to grab the lead from Andreas Mikkelsen on spherical seven of the FIA World Rally Championship.

After 15 fast-paced gravel phases, Rovanperä is in entrance by 9.4s in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid with 4 phases and 63 kilometres of timed motion remaining on Sunday.

With restricted preparation time having changed Sébastien Ogier following the Frenchman’s reconnaissance accident lower than 48 hours earlier than the rally started, reigning world champion Rovanperä romped to 6 quickest occasions throughout Saturday to overturn the 1.8s benefit beforehand held by Mikkelsen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid) on Friday night time. 

Tyre put on threatened to undermine the Finn’s dominance within the afternoon’s sizzling temperatures, which reached nearly 30 levels centigrade. The exhausting compound Pirellis that made up the majority of Mikkelsen’s choice outlasted Rovanperä’s combine of 4 softs and one exhausting. Regardless of that, Rovanperä made the perfect of his remaining tyres, even including 4.2s to his lead by way of the day-closing 22.40-kilometre Czarne check.

“I attempted my finest the entire day, and the afternoon was undoubtedly extra gratifying after I knew what was coming,” Rovanperä stated. “It won’t be straightforward tomorrow; I feel it will likely be harder than right this moment. Let’s hope for the perfect.”

Mikkelsen dropped to 3rd behind GR Yaris driver Elfyn Evans after two phases, however Toyota’s 1-2 was short-lived when the Welshman suffered a rear tyre delamination on SS13. It price Evans nearly 10s and he has been pressured to accept the ultimate podium spot, trailing Mikkelsen by 6.7s in a single day.

Evans might take solace from the truth that he outscored essential title rivals Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak within the Saturday factors distribution, provisionally accumulating 13 factors in contrast with Neuville’s six and Tänak’s zero. The latter, who had already stopped on Friday, retired his Hyundai once more this lunchtime in a bid to protect the automotive for Tremendous Sunday. 

Adrien Fourmaux continued his robust run to fourth total in an M-Sport Ford Puma, ending the leg 20.9s adrift of Evans however 21.2s away from fifth-placed Mārtiņš Sesks, driving a non-hybrid Puma.

Sesks, who’s making his top-level debut this weekend, did nicely to carry off championship chief Neuville by a single tenth whereas Grégoire Munster completes the highest seven. 

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta stays in eighth place whereas FIA WRC2 frontrunners Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg full the highest 10. 

Jakub Matulka is 5.5s forward of Diego Domínguez within the battle for the FIA WRC3 win, whereas Armin Kremer’s FIA WRC Masters’ Cup lead stands at nearly two minutes.

Sunday’s remaining leg options double runs of Gmina Mrągowo and Mikołajki with the Wolf Energy Stage on account of start at 14:15 native time.