Rovanpera takes Rally Chile lead as Ogier retires from day

Rovanpera takes Rally Chile lead as Ogier retires from day

28th September 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera has taken over the rally lead in Chile as, teammate, Ogier retires from the day after hitting a rock. 

Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans had led the majority of Saturday, having taken the rally lead on Saturday night, but he was later hindered by fog on stage 11 which cost him the lead. 

As such, Rovanpera was in prime position to take the rally lead after Hyundai’s Ott Tanak spun on Stage 8, and fell to third.

However, it was a bad weekend for the eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier who faced the ultimate wrath of Rally Chile having already lost time due to a puncture on Friday. 

On SS8, Ogier would retire from the event as he hit a loose rock in a tight technical section which broke a bolt in his suspension. He was able to continue on but had to retire from the action.

How did the second-day end?

Rovanpera completed the day in the lead, overtaking teammate Evans who was hindered by fog in the latter stages. As such, the reigning world champion holds onto the fastest time in Chile: 2 hours, 25 minutes and 14.3 seconds.

This means Evans dropped to second place after two days of action 15.1 seconds away from his teammate as his fellow championship rival, Tanak rounded out the top three, 33.6 seconds behind. 

WRC Championship leader, Theirry Neuville moved up two positions compared to Friday – where he finished sixth – and now stands best of the rest in fourth. The Belgian is 43.7s behind and stands a strong chance to breach into the podium positions on Sunday.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux also jumped up the order – from eighth yesterday – to finished the second day of action in fifth. Toyota’s Sami Pajari completed the day in sixth, ahead of M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster in seventh.

Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi had a problematic second day as his front bumper was hanging on, during stage eight. However, after the stage, Lappi stated he drove into a cut to rip it from the car. 

WRC2 contenders, Nikolay Gryazin and Gus Greensmith completed the top 10.

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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.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC

About the author

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.

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