Kalle Rovanperä hit a bank and pushed a tire off the rim on stage three, surrendering the lead of Rally Chile to his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
Rovanperä won in Concepción 12 months ago but declared himself not a fan of the nature of Friday’s tests. Yet he went fastest by a strong 3.9 seconds on Pulpería, and repeated the trick (by 1.1s) on Rere, to lead the rally by 5.8s heading into the longest stage of the loop: San Rosendo (14.49 miles).
But the Toyota driver made a mistake on SS3, running wide and hitting a bank with the rear-left of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Quickly after the impact he noticed his rear-left tire was losing pressure, but opted to press on without stopping to change – the right call, given Rovanperä dropped 1m11.9s.
The incident however dropped him from first to ninth.
“We just went a bit wide in one narrow place and had the puncture from there. Unfortunately we debeaded the tire,” Rovanperä explained.
“It was still a long way to go but the tire was not completely zero pressure so it was difficult to make a choice [whether to stop], but the good result again has gone really quickly so that’s a disappointment.”
Rovanperä’s mishap could have big consequences in the fight to win this year’s World Rally Championship, as championship leader Evans moved into the lead despite starting first on the road.
Ott Tänak is just 0.5s adrift of the Toyota, with Adrien Fourmaux completing the top three – 9.6s adrift.
Sébastien Ogier hasn’t enjoyed a vintage morning however – setting just one top-three stage time all morning. He’s 13.9s off the lead in fourth.
“I’m on the limit on this one,” Ogier said. “I cannot be faster so we need to make some changes to the car.”
Things are even worse for world champion Thierry Neuville though. He’s just 0.6s behind Ogier but really unhappy with his Hyundai.
“It’s more [like] surviving,” Neuville commented. “I feel like we are experimenting during the rallies and it doesn’t feel good. I can only use this setup from the differentials at the moment, so it is what it is. It’s a big struggle – it’s a nightmare.”
Sami Pajari had been ahead of both Ogier and Neuville prior to SS3 but dropped 14.5s to slip to sixth overall.
Grégoire Munster ran into trouble late on the final stage of the morning, as his Puma’s gear lever dislodged itself and he was forced to shift gears manually.
Munster's sequential shifter gave up towards the end of Friday morning
Munster explained: “I had a really good start of the stage, it’s a shame. I’m shifting gear like a BMA Porsche 911 on Safari. It;s how it is.”
That leaves him just 0.6s ahead of Takamoto Katsuta in seventh – the Japanese driver struggling having not competed in Chile last year. Rovanperä is 21.0s behind Katsuta and 1m05.6s off the lead.
Josh McErlean’s first visit to Chile hasn’t gone to plan, as the Irishman suffered a high-speed spin on the first stage which ripped the front bumper off his Ford Puma Rally1.
That compromised him thereafter, as it left the 26-year-old without vital front-end aero. He’s nearly two minutes off the lead.
Gus Greensmith headed into Rally Chile promising to “win it or bin it” with the WRC2 title on the line, but a steering problem on his Škoda has stunted that challenge.
“I’m trying as much as I can, but maybe sometimes it kills the confidence when you’re constantly having big moments,” he said. “I’m turning in and the steering goes really hard and I can’t change the direction of the steering wheel. Not what we need right now.”
Greensmith is fourth, with Oliver Solberg recovering from an SS1 spin to lead the category after SS3. Emil Lindholm is second with Nikolay Gryazin third.
