Winner of six of the seven special stages on Saturday, Kalle Rovanperä reigned supreme on the second leg of the Rally Poland. And the Toyota driver logically returned to the service park as leader on Saturday evening, with a 9.4″ lead over Andreas Mikkelsen, his closest pursuer. “I did my best all day,” noted the double world champion, a last-minute replacement for Sébastien Ogier on this rally. “The afternoon was more enjoyable when I knew a little bit what was coming. But we weren’t fast at the start of the rally so the gap can’t be any bigger…”
The Norwegian from Hyundai, in the lead on Friday evening, did not manage to maintain the same pace as the day before but he accomplished his main mission: to beat Elfyn Evans and deprive the Welshman of some precious points in the Championship (part of the points being “blocked” with the result on Saturday evening), giving a helping hand to his teammate Thierry Neuville in the fight for the title.
Evans could probably have dreamed of a better fate but he suffered a puncture on the first special stage of the afternoon. His delaminated right rear wheel damaged the bodywork and forced the Welshman to ease off a bit because he no longer had a spare wheel to finish the day.
Adrien Fourmaux hangs on to his 4th place
Behind, Adrien Fourmaux continued at an excellent pace to secure his fourth place (+37”0), the risk taking would have been too great if the Frenchman from Ford M-Sport had sought to really worry the leading trio. For fifth place, Martin Sesks, the young Latvian on a Puma Rally1 without hybrid system, kept a tenth ahead of Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). The Championship leader would have liked him to be at his advantage to benefit from a better position on the road on Sunday where points will be distributed on the result of the day (Super Sunday) and the last special (Power Stage).
Grégoire Munster has fallen back into line a little after a good Friday, slipping to 7th place (+ 1’24”5) with his Ford M-Sport Puma. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) brought up the rear in Rally1 at 1’41”9. As for Ott Tänak, after his retirement on Friday, he only rode in the morning on Saturday, saving his strength for Super Sunday, where he will once again open the road for the 60 km timed race.
