{"id":39553,"date":"2025-08-02T08:25:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39553\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T08:25:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T08:25:37","slug":"kalle-rovanpera-on-top-of-close-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39553\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalle Rovanpera on top of close fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kalle Rovanpera has rediscovered some form on gravel to lead Rally Finland in what proved to be an intense World Rally Championship fight for the lead on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The two-time world champion has struggled on gravel this season but has found speed from his Toyota GR Yaris package to open up a 4.4s lead over Hyundai\u2019s Adrien Fourmaux<\/a> after four morning stages.<\/p>\n

Rovanpera clocked a fastest time on stage three, Saarikas 1 – 15.78km, to move into the outright lead of the rally, which he then extended by winning stage four, Myhinpaa 1 – 14.47km.<\/p>\n

Rovanpera ended the loop by setting the fourth-fastest time on stage five, Ruuhimaki, 7.76km, 1.1s slower than Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari<\/a>, who delivered his most impressive morning of the season to date.<\/p>\n

Although not completely happy with his driving, Rovanpera admitted he was pushing \u201call out\u201d and taking risks to achieve his leading pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely better than we have been in previous rallies and obviously it is a nice thing,\u201d Rovanpera told Motorsport.com. “It probably doesn\u2019t feel so good in the car but at least the times are coming. I cannot complain too much. There have been no real secrets, we have been working on it quite hard in the test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adrien <\/p>\n

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1<\/p>\n

Photo by: Fabien Dufour \/ Hyundai Motorsport<\/p>\n

Rovanpera’s nearest rival was Fourmaux, who quickly adapted to Finland\u2019s high-risk and high-speed gravel roads. The Frenchman leapt from sixth to second on stage three after trailing Rovanpera\u2019s benchmark by 1.6s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe [Rovanpera] is really fighting and I have a bit more of a clean approach,\u201d said Fourmaux. \u201cThere are some extra risks to take and I can play a little bit with some margins, but I still want to do a good rally and I do not want to break my confidence. It is maybe 2% missing [in my risk taking] to be closer to Kalle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pajari produced an impressive performance to end the morning loop in third, 4.5s adrift of the lead. The Rally1 rookie has spent the majority of the season focusing on learning the GR Yaris package, but this weekend he\u2019s opted to push more at an event where he finished fourth on his Rally1 debut last year.<\/p>\n

The change in approach was highlighted by stage wins on stage 2 and stage 5, marking only his second and third stage wins in the WRC\u2019s top flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is maybe a more brave plan or approach but I\u2019m still not really doing anything crazy. In some places I was not really taking a risk,” said Pajari.<\/p>\n

Toyota\u2019s Takamoto Katsuta<\/a> enjoyed a share of the rally lead after stage two where he was pipped to the fastest time by 0.1s. The Japanese driver continued his strong form to reach midday service in fourth, 4.8s behind.<\/p>\n

\"Sami <\/p>\n

Sami Pajari, Marko Salminen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1<\/p>\n

Photo by: Toyota Racing<\/p>\n

Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville<\/a> didn\u2019t enjoy the high-speed nature of the stages but still managed to keep himself in the fight in fifth, a tenth of a second behind Katsuta.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not what I enjoy the most and I don\u2019t think anybody enjoyed it but we are here,\u201d said Neuville. \u201cWhen you don\u2019t need to brake for any jump or any corner and just for the junctions the only way you make the difference is by taking risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toyota\u2019s Elfyn Evans<\/a> ended the morning in sixth, 9.3s off the lead, ahead of team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who dropped 6.4s after stage three.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely fast and some sections are too fast, and almost like boring fast as there are no corners,\u201d said Ogier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one stage where we were not committed enough and it cost us some important seconds. But the important thing is the gap is still close, which means the afternoon will be crucial to improve our road positions for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Overnight leader Hyundai\u2019s Ott Tanak<\/a> was hampered by opening the dry and dusty gravel roads punctuated by junctions. The championship leader was 8.5s behind Rovanpera at midday service, but ahead of M-Sport-Ford\u2019s trio of Martins Sesks, Josh McErlean and Gregoire Munster<\/a>. The latter lost time to spins in stage three and four.<\/p>\n

Emil Lindholm led the WRC2 class by 0.2s from 18-time WRC winner Jari-Matti Latvala<\/a>, while Rally Estonia winner Oliver Solberg<\/a> was seventh after a costly missed turn in stage five.<\/p>\n

WRC Rally Finland – Day 2<\/p>\n

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\"Gr\u00e9goire<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Adrien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Elfyn<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Martins<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Joshua<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Elfyn<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\"Takamoto<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"S\u00e9bastien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Ott<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Sami<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Adrien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Sami<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Ott<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Ott<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Joshua<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"S\u00e9bastien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Martins<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Adrien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Elfyn<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"S\u00e9bastien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Sami<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Thierry<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Kalle<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Elfyn<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Ott<\/p>\n


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\"Joshua<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"S\u00e9bastien<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Sami<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Martins<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Sami<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\"Ott<\/p>\n


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\"Mikko<\/p>\n


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\"Martins<\/p>\n


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\n Rally Finland – Day 2, in photos
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kalle Rovanpera has rediscovered some form on gravel to lead Rally Finland in what proved to be an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,6214,806,805,803,804,32480,85,10277],"class_list":{"0":"post-39553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-finland","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-rally-finland","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-wrc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}