Kalle Rovanperä made a major breakthrough at Secto Rally Finland on Friday, leading a gravel round of the FIA World Rally Championship for the first time this season.
The Finn completed the opening day of his home event with a 4.9sec advantage over Thierry Neuville, with just 15.7sec separating the top five crews after almost 115 kilometres of action on flat-out forest roads in central Finland.
Rovanperä, who won back-to-back world titles in 2022 and 2023 but has never claimed victory at his home rally, had struggled to match the frontrunning pace on gravel this year. But the 24-year-old appears to have found his breakthrough at this ninth round, moving into the lead after the second stage and setting fastest times on four of the day’s nine speed tests.
Despite his pace, Rovanperä acknowledged the challenge wasn’t always comfortable in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, especially during the afternoon’s second pass through more rutted stages complicated by intermittent patchy rain.
“The set-up what we have does not work in the ruts, that was scary,” he told reporters after SS7. “I was all over the place. Timewise it worked, but I almost went off once.”
Reflecting on his day overall, he added: “It was a nice day, but not easy by any means. I am not really in my comfort zone at the moment, but we are pushing hard. Let’s see if we can get a better feeling for tomorrow.”
Neuville secured the runner-up spot despite admitting the stages weren’t to his liking. “All flat-out and just taking risks – not at all what I like,” said the Belgian, who ran third for much of the morning before dropping to fifth behind, Adrien Fourmaux, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari ahead of the mid-leg service.
A series of top-three times – achieved despite a cracked windscreen – lifted the Hyundai driver back to second overnight. Team-mate Fourmaux sits just 2.8sec behind in third after a consistent performance that included a joint stage win with Rovanperä on SS8.
Katsuta was just four-tenths of a second further back and celebrated his 50th WRC stage win during Friday’s action. He held off Toyota colleague Pajari, who secured two fastest times of his own, by 7.6sec while Sébastien Ogier rounded out the top six just 1.9sec further adrift.
Last year’s event winner Ogier felt slightly hampered by road conditions from his starting position of third. A brief stall on Saarikas 2 cost the eight-time champion valuable seconds, though he noted grip levels had improved on the second pass.
Similar road conditions affected Ogier’s Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, who ended 8.4sec behind the Frenchman in seventh. Evans lost the championship lead to Ott Tänak at the previous round but fared better than his title rival today. Tänak dropped to 10th overall after an impact with a tree on SS7 left him nursing damage for the remaining three stages.
M-Sport Ford drivers filled eighth, ninth and 11th positions, with Mārtinš Sesks leading the intra-team battle ahead of Josh McErlean and Grégoire Munster.
Saturday presents the rally’s longest day with double runs through the Parkkala, Västila, Päijäla and Leustu stages, totalling over 140 kilometres.
