2023-08-04 17:19:05
Finland’s Kalle Rovanperä went off the road on Friday as he took the lead in Rally Finland, the ninth round of the WRC championship, without damage to him and his co-driver.
On the eighth stage, Rovanperä skidded on the rain-muddy road and rolled over. Television footage showed his Toyota on its roof and badly damaged with the driver at his side.
The Finn, 22 years old and reigning world champion, occupied before the rally of Finland the head of the provisional classification of the championship in front of his British teammate at Toyota, Elfyn Evans.
It was the latter who took the lead after the accident in Rovanperä, 10.9 seconds ahead of Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and 13.3 seconds ahead of Japanese Takamoto Tatsuta, also on Toyota.
Rally Finland, the fastest event in the championship, was particularly eventful on Friday with first the retirement of the Estonian Ott Tänak (M-Sport / Ford) due to mechanical problems then that of the Finn Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) off the road, also without damage to the driver and his co-driver.
Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport / Ford) also hit a rock and broke his suspension which forced him to retire for the day.
While Tänak will not restart, Rovanperä, Lappi and Loubet will still be able to resume racing on Saturday if their cars can be repaired. If they have already virtually lost all chance of getting on the podium, they can still hope to score points during the “Power Stage” on Sunday which awards additional points in the championship to the first 5.
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