Following a strong performance on Friday’s opening day from second on the road, Rovanperä came into the longest day of the rally with a lead of 10.8 seconds. He more than doubled that advantage with a storming drive in the first stage of the day, going quickest by 12.8s in the classic Vieira do Minho test.
More caution was required in the subsequent Amarante – the longest stage of the season so far at 37.24 kilometres – but he still substantially increased his lead to 45.8s. That became 52.4s at the end of the morning loop after he completed a hat-trick of stage wins in the much shorter Felgueiras.
In the afternoon, Rovanperä came incredibly close to repeating that feat across the three mountain stages, missing out only by 0.7s in a rough second pass of Amarante. After the side-by-side Lousada super special stage that rounded out the day, Rovanperä’s lead stands at 57.5s.
Takamoto Katsuta was able to return to action under restart rules this morning following the technical issue that brought him to a halt on Friday. He faced the most slippery conditions opening the road for most of the day, but did post the second-best time in Lousada.
After the accident of Elfyn Evans in SS7 on Friday and an inspection of the damaged car, the team took the decision to retire it from the rally. Both Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin were cleared following routine medical checks last night and will now prepare for the next round in Sardinia.
