Evans snatches WRC Rally Finland lead as Rovanpera rolls out
5th August 2023Toyota’s Elfyn Evans has snatched the lead of the World Rally Championship’s Rally Finland after his teammate, Kalle Rovanpera, rolled out 11.1km into the second pass of Myhinpää.
Following on from his teammate’s early retirement out of his home rally, Evans has inherited the rally lead ahead after he sat behind Rovapera throughout the majority of Friday morning. Although the Welshman was yet to secure a stage win in this year’s edition of Rally Finland, the British driver remained out ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by 6.9 seconds.
Rovanpera, who had led the rally since the opening stage on Friday morning, saw his ambitions of a maiden home rally win come crashing down. As the Finnish driver skipped through Finland’s forests, the #69 Toyota roared through a fast right-hander only to snag a ditch with his rear-right tyre ran which made contact with the scenery, this catapulted the Yaris into the air and into a roll.
Fortunately, both Rovanpera and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen pressed the okay button to signal they were okay – the defending driver’s champion even gave the circling helicopter a thumbs up to reiterate the fact.
Due to the damage, Toyota has confirmed the Finnish driver will not continue on with the rally.
This meant Neuville was promoted up to second place but he found himself as the filling in a Toyota sandwich as Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta rounded out the top three, 16.3s off the pace.
Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen led the best of the rest in the overall standings with his fourth-place finish at the end of Friday’s running, and last of the regular WRC runners. Toyota’s guest entry in Jari-Matti Latvala rounded out the top five.
Rovanpera was not the only driver to retire from the event. M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak and Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi were also on the retirement list.
Tanak was the first to retire of the WRC-class drivers as he was seen in EV mode on stage three. The Estonian quickly pulled off the stage through an access road to get to work on makeshift repairs. However, damage sustained to his sump guard and the engine was too much for the team to fix and Tanak’s retirement from Rally Finland was declared.
Lappi quickly followed suit on Friday morning after he crashed out into some nearby trees, on stage five. The Finnish driver blasted through the winding roads that lined Finland’s forests but due to the changing weather conditions, a fast right-hand kink caught him out.
On the exit of the fast right-hander, the rear end of Lappi’s Hyundai veered off the course and dragged the front of the car off with it. The front bonnet was the first to collide with a tree which snapped the car around. Thankfully, Lappi and his co-driver Janne Ferm were okay and soon seen out of the car.
As a result of the retirements, this meant the top 10 was filled with half WRC-class teams and drivers and half WRC2 who occupied the remainder of the top 10, from sixth to 10th.
Jari Huttunen led the WRC2 drivers in sixth with fellow Finnish driver Sami Pajari close behind in seventh. Nikolay Gryazin finished the second day of running in eighth of the overall standings but third of the WRC2 class, to complete the podium.
Oliver Solberg and Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top 10 in ninth and 10th respectively.
That’s all for the article; Evans snatches WRC Rally Finland lead as Rovanpera rolls out!
Read more WRC here:
- Disaster for M-Sport Ford as Tanak retires from Rally Finland
- Tanak fastest in WRC Rally Finland opener
- WRC 2023 Rally Finland: Preview
- WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia
- Rally Estonia: Rovanpera takes control of rally 3-seconds ahead of Neuville
- Rally Estonia: Tanak fastest on Thursday opener despite penalty
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
