Kalle Rovanperä left only crumbs to his opponents on Saturday, during the second day of Rally Estonia. Already demonstrating in the morning at the wheel of his Toyota, the reigning world champion set the scratch time for each of the nine specials on the programme. Enough to feed his flight in the provisional classification: he was 3 seconds ahead of Thierry Neuville at the start in the morning and he presented 34”9 when returning to the service in the evening in Tartu.
The Finn is building his victory step by step on this ultra-fast rally. He makes the difference naturally, without even looking for the knockout blow on his opponents. An ease that he summed up as follows: “I don’t attack that much but everything works well. I try to be clean and the lap times drop. It’s rather encouraging. »
Neuville in control for 2nd place
Behind, Neuville tried to hold on, but the Belgian from Hyundai gradually let go. A slow puncture that occurred before noon handicapped him and he then focused on controlling opponents in the rear view mirror. A mission he is about to succeed since his teammate Esapekka Lappi and Elfyn Evans (Toyota) are respectively pushed back to 10 and 18 seconds behind him.
Untenable at the start of the event, Ott Tänak fell into line. The Estonian, who has four successes at home, is probably suffering the backlash of his five-minute penalty, received on Thursday evening and which prevented him from winning. Then the M-Sport Ford driver started experiencing problems with his car that he couldn’t identify. His cumulative times still allow him to be in 8th place before the last four stages on Sunday (at 5’55). Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport Ford) is in 6th place, 2’25 behind Rovanperä.