Saturday’s morning loop at Rally Estonia was once again marked by small storms, although this time the starting position was identical for Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanperä, at the back of the priority driver group. A scenario where the differences have been minor, but in which the leader of the WRC has once again made a profit. Evans’ initial SS10 scratch has been drowned out by Rovanperä’s performance and the gap between the two Toyota drivers is now slightly larger at 19.1sec.
Very fast sections and changing weather. This seems to be the definition of Rally Estonia and more specifically of the four stages of the morning on Saturday. Although as they say it never rains to everyone’s liking, on this occasion the precipitation affected all the drivers in a more consistent way. Still without rain, Elfyn Evans imposed his pace in SS10, although he barely managed to cut 0.6 seconds behind him with Kalle Rovanperä. And the truth is that the Finn’s response was more than forceful.
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Kalle Rovanperä linked the fastest times of SS11 and SS12 to extend his lead to 15.7 seconds. A close duel, without other actors, since Ott Tänak could only count the seconds that fell to him special after special, like his partner Thierry Neuville. All in all, the Belgian is already fourth overall in the rally after Esapekka Lappi’s problems in both SS12 and SS13. If on the first run through ‘Otepää’ one of his tires came off and he had to stop to change it, on the last stage of the morning he had a small spin.
The misfortunes to which Esapekka Lappi was subject made him fall to seventh position, ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet and Gus Greensmith, the latter with a double puncture that possibly prevented him from being ahead of Lappi, among other things because he had to cross ‘Neeruti’ with extreme caution so as not to be out of the race in the event of a possible third puncture. In this regard, the heavier rain present in SS13 did work in Greensmith’s favour, as the pace was slower.
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An SS13 that ended with a new scratch by Kalle Rovanperä to raise his lead to 19.1 seconds. The perfect finishing touch to the response she has given to Elfyn Evans’ initial scratch and that nips any aspirations of her rival in the bud. Ott Tänak remains third, but is already 57.6 seconds behind Kalle. After Lappi’s already mentioned problems, Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta complete the ‘top 5’, although the Japanese is very close to Adrien Fourmaux, the best M-Sport driver given the circumstances.
Classification after SS13 of the 12th Rally Estonia
Rally Estonia continues this Saturday (2:08 p.m.) with the dispute in the second half of the second stage of the event. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 48.34 kilometers against the clock.
Photos: Toyota Gazoo Racing