The world champion has recovered the fierceness that gave him the title. Kalle Rovanpera has launched a merciless attack that has allowed him to escape at the head of the Rally of Portugal and, with the final stage to go, he caresses the victory. Dani Sordo remains secondalthough he has lost the trail of the Finn and will have to defend himself against his teammates, Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi to get on the podium.
“I just woke up and I thought we should drive a bit at rally pace”, joked Rovanpera after dealing a hard blow in the first stage of the day, Vieira do Minho. And so it continued in the next three to Increase Deaf advantage from 10 to 50+ seconds. The Spaniard did not have a good morning, but in the afternoon he put the batteries and resumed the good rhythm that allowed him fight face to face with the Finn in the first stage.
“I feel good,” Dani explained. “I really pushed hard and tried to keep up. I am enjoying the car and now there is a lot more grip. It feels more natural, like yesterday. I need to attack to be in the fight. I was a bit afraid of wearing out the tyres, but we decided we had to fight.”
And it is that his teammates, Neuville and Lappi, took advantage of their morning slump to get dangerously close, although in the afternoon Sordo put things back in place, winning the longest section of the test, Amarante. Now it remains to be seen if Hyundai give team orders to favor its two pilots full time. Behind them, already far away, is Ott Tanak, who has been complaining about the behavior of his Ford throughout the rally, and he also lost time when a stone broke his front window.
The final day has epicenter the mythical section of Fafe and its great final jump. After completing 4 sections and 60 timed kilometers, there, before hundreds of thousands of fans, many of them Spanish, will culminate a great weekend of rallying.
Classification
1. Rovanpera-Halttunen (Fin/Toyota), 2h 59m 48.6s
2. Sordo-Carrera (Esp/Hyundai), at 57.5
3. Neuville-Wydaeghe (Bel/Hyundai), at 1:08.6
4. Lappi-Ferm (Fin/Hyundai), at 1:10.9
5. Tanak-Jarveoja (Est/Ford), at 2:21.8
