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Championship leader Kalle Rovanperä won seven stages from nine on Saturday
Photography by Toyota, M-Sport, Hyundai & Red Bull
Kalle Rovanperä heads into the final day of Rally Estonia with a 29.1-second lead over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, as Adrien Fourmaux won the final superspecial stage of Saturday.
Rovanperä has been in total command of the second full day in Estonia. Although Evans edged him on Saturday morning’s opener, Rovanperä was fastest on all seven of the succeeding forest stages to put the contest out of the reach of Evans.
But on the Tartu superspecial – which was now extremely rutted following the first pass on Thursday evening – the competitive order was somewhat thrown out the window.
It was up to Fourmaux to bring Rovanperä’s stage-winning streak to an end, claiming his third career stage win and first on an event other than Safari Rally Kenya.
Evans was quicker than Rovanperä too, although by just four tenths, but he’ll need to find a lot more to mount any serious pressure on the World Rally Championship points leader on Sunday.
Home hero Ott Tänak has consistently been the closest to the two leading Toyotas on the Saturday timesheets, but the Hyundai pilot is some 42.4s adrift of second-placed Evans in the final podium place.
Team-mate Thierry Neuville is in no man’s land, another 1m08.8s behind Tänak and almost two minutes off the lead. He gained a place as Esapekka Lappi was relegated from fourth to seventh place in the morning when a tire punctured over a landing.
Lappi has struggled for motivation thereafter, dropping behind Takamoto Katsuta and Adrien Fourmaux who had been closely matched until Katsuta began to steal a march across the afternoon.
Although Fourmaux beat Katsuta by an impressive 2.5s on the Tartu superspecial, Katsuta heads into the final day with 10.9s in hand over Fourmaux – although neither driver seemed particularly interested in the battle as they both simply aimed to stick to their rhythm and manage their performance.
Pierre-Louis Loubet is eighth ahead of Gus Greensmith who suffered the same fate as Lappi on the very same stage in the morning.
Craig Breen and Oliver Solberg are both well outside the points and ran as the first two cars onto the road on Saturday.
Both had their dramas – Breen picked up a flat very early on SS16 Otepää when he drove over a felled anti-cut device which was hidden in said cut, while Solberg suffered a wild moment over a jump on the same test and flirted with his maiden WRC stage win throughout the day.
Solberg ended up second fastest on Tartu, just one tenth of a second off Fourmaux’s stage-winning time.
Andreas Mikkelsen remains atop the WRC2 class, lying 10th overall in his Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo, though had a late scare on the Tartu superspecial.
Estonia is an important rally for Mikkelsen who retired from the lead of both Portugal and Sardinia with engine problems, though had a small moment on the day-ending superspecial when he oversteered on the exit of the final corner and slid off at slow-speed into a rock.
That moment cost him 6.3s relative to the chasing Teemu Suninen, who reduced the lead gap to 10.6s.
Behind Hyundai’s WRC2 flagbearer, Mikkelsen’s Toksport stablemate Marco Bulacia holds third, keeping Finnish champion Emil Lindholm at arm’s length throughout the day.
Photography: Toyota, M-Sport, Hyundai, Red Bull
Tags: Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä, Rally Estonia, Rally Estonia 2022, Toyota, WRC 2022
Publish Date July 16, 2022 DirtFish https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2022/07/WRC_2022_Rd.7_333-1.jpg?fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-1.2.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main July 16, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 DirtFish, LLC. All rights reserved.
Subaru Impreza STI Sedan & Hatchback Features
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels aiding in the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: Our Subaru STi’s use a 2.5 liter 4-cylinder Turbo-charged Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru STi is equipped with an advanced all-wheel-drive system with an active center differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. In order for the wheels to fit on our Subaru STi’s, we had to convert them to a Group N brake setup.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Roll Cage: Every rally car requires a welded-in safety cage. The roll cages in our cars are built in-house from scratch.
Racing Seats: Driver and co-driver need to be firmly mounted to the structure of the vehicle. The use of hinged-back seats in rally vehicles is prohibited in rally and most forms of racing.
Racing Harnesses: Safety first. A minimum of a 5-point harness is required by all American rally sanctioning bodies. The 5 points consist of 2 shoulder harness, 2 lap belts and a single anti-submarine belt (not shown).
Handbrake: Most rally cars use a hydraulic handbrake. The purpose of the handbrake maneuver is to turn a car around a very tight corner by locking up the rear wheels to aid the rotation of the car around the corner.
Engine: The Subary BRZ is powered by a 2.0 liter naturally aspirated Boxer engine.
Drive train: The Subaru BRZ is rear-wheel-drive and equipped with a limited slip differential.
Gravel Rally Tires: Being a rally school, we spend most of our time on gravel roads. To maximize the learning experience, we outfit all of our cars with the latest gravel rally tires for maximum traction.
Method Rally Wheels: It is very important to have a durably strong, yet lightweight rally wheel that can hold up to constant abuse, rocks, rough roads and punctures. At DirtFish, we use and trust Method Race Wheels.
Suspension: Rally is rarely on a perfectly smooth roads, because of that rally cars require suspension that can take the abuse. We choose to use Reiger rally suspension on our cars.
Brakes: Rally cars commonly use a 15″ rally wheel. Luckily with the Subaru BRZ’s, the stock brake system is more than adequate for our programs.
Underbody Protection: Driving at high speeds over variable surfaces can easily damage parts. With the constant spray of gravel that gets thrown at them, skid plates and urethane underbody protection help with the longevity of the underbody of the cars.
Below you will find an aerial view of the DirtFish property. Go through and check out the courses you’ll be driving on during your driving program! View everything from The Slalom all the way up to our longest course, the Advanced Mill Run!