Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera goes fastest on Rally Finland shakedown
Rovanpera blitzed the competition after electing to tackle the 2.87-miles of ‘Rannankylä’ for a fourth time. At one minute 56.3 seconds, it was eight tenths of a second faster than Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate and former event winner Elfyn Evans - and a possible sign of what lies in store over the course of the weekend ahead.
“Not maybe pressure but of course there is more will to try and win it,” said 22-year-old Rovanpera. “Definitely it is not going to be easy from first on the road, but that's our target - to try to push for the win of course but still have a good rally to score some good points for the season.”
Slotting in at three in his i20 N Rally1 car was fellow Finn Esapekka Lappi – another winner of the ‘Gravel Grand Prix’. The Hyundai Motorsport driver was 1.1 seconds off Rovanpera’s benchmark.
Ott Tanak – who goes in search of back-to-back wins in an attempt to keep his already slim World Rally Championship title hopes alive – managed to complete the exercise fourth overall despite reporting electrical gremlins with his Puma Rally1 after the opening run.
Tanak’s time was two tenths faster than the third points-scoring Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta, who returns to the factory team in the absence of eight-time World Champion, Sebastien Ogier.
The second works Hyundai driven by Thierry Neuville was sixth, M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet seventh and Teemu Suninen – on his second Rally1 outing with Hyundai Motorsport – eighth. Coming out of retirement for his 210th World Rally Championship start, triple Rally Finland victor Jari-Matti Latvala was the last of the priority Rally1 runners in ninth (two minutes 1.7 seconds).
