Finland – SS18: Rovanperä finishes strong, Evans saves the furniture

The last special stage of the day was eventful to say the least. At the front, we find the two protagonists for victory. After their perfect tie on SS17, it was Kalle Rovanperä who took the best Ott Tänak in SS18. The Finn achieved his 6th scratch of the day with a time of 9'56″8. The Estonian failed 3″1 behind the pilot Toyota and saw his lead reduced to 8″4 at the end of this third day on the Rally from Finland.

The battle for the podium took another turn in this special. Elfyn Evans (11th, +52″1) suffered a broken left rear suspension during SS17. The Welshman attempted an express repair on the link and was able to start SS18. But the vice-world champion had to drive at a slow pace to reach the finish line. With more than 50 seconds late at the finish, Evans said goodbye to victory but was able to save his 4th place in front Thierry Neuville (3rd, +9″2).

Aware of his lack of pace and that Evans was out of the race, Esapekka Lappi (5th, +18″3) preferred to maintain his pace on this SS18 and finished more than 18 seconds behind Rovanperä. The Finn is isolated in 3rd place, 35″2 behind leader Ott Tänak. A little further behind, Takamoto Katsuta (9th, +41″6) lost sight of 5th place after an error during the special. Starting off in a spin, the Japanese stalled and had difficulty getting going again. He is now 42 seconds behind Thierry Neuville.

The classification of SS18: 

The general classification after SS18: