Substitute Kalle Rovanperä takes the lead at the Rally Poland on Saturday, but will have to fight Mikkelsen and Evans for victory on the final day
Toyota driver Kalle Rovanperä goes into the final day of the Rally Poland, the seventh round of the 2024 World Rally Championship (WRC), in the lead. The Finn, who had stepped in at short notice to replace Sebastien Ogier and missed the pre-event recce, took the lead on the tenth special stage on Saturday and defended it until the end of the day.
However, victory is far from a done deal. Before the final day, Rovenperä has a lead of just 9.4 seconds over Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai). Rovenperä’s team-mate Elfyn Evans is third, 16.1 seconds behind. (to the result)
Evans had fought a thrilling battle with Rovanperä for a long time and had come within 0.4 seconds of the reigning world champion at one point, but lost 8.9 seconds on the 13th special stage due to a puncture.
The two M-Sport Ford drivers Adrien Fourmaux and Martin Sesks followed in fourth and fifth place. In his first outing in the Ford Puma Rally1 without hybrid drive, the Latvian was not quite able to match his very strong performance on Friday, but continued to exceed expectations.
WRC leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) improved to sixth place, Gregoire Munster (Ford) and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) finished seventh and eighth. WRC2 drivers Sami Pajari (Toyota) and Robert Virves (Skoda) completed the top 10.
Rovanperä won five of the seven special stages on Saturday, but was still not satisfied. “With so little preparation, it’s just scary. The whole time in fifth gear,” he lamented the missed recce during the fast rally in the morning.
Rovanperä dominates – and complains
In the afternoon, Rovanperä opted for soft tires, which he believes was a mistake. “It felt like the softs were already giving way. Hard would have been better,” he said after the penultimate stage of the day – on which, incidentally, he had set the fastest time.
Mikkelsen, who had led the rally after Friday, tried everything on Saturday afternoon to keep up with Rovanperä, but in his own estimation went over the limit. “I tried a bit too hard, it wasn’t efficient. I overdid it at times. The position is good, but we want to be one place further forward,” he said, looking ahead to the final day.
After two stages were canceled on Friday and another was interrupted due to problems with spectators in dangerous places, the FIA confirmed that the police presence would be increased again to prevent a repeat of such incidents. Officers were sent to the wooded areas that had been identified as places where a small minority of fans were in dangerous places and disrupting proceedings.
Nevertheless, the first special stage of the day had to be briefly interrupted for safety reasons. The FIA confirmed that the event organizers “implemented a series of strict safety measures in accordance with a detailed safety plan that was drawn up and approved months in advance”.
On the final day of the Rally Poland, the teams can expect four special stages with a total length of 63.06 kilometers.
