The lead fight on Rally Poland has tightened up significantly, as a first stage win of the rally promoted Kalle Rovanperä to first place by only 0.2 seconds.
Early rally leader Andreas Mikkelsen had a woeful run through the second pass of Stanczyki. While he’d taken two hards and two softs – a selection that Toyota had shown was the right one thanks to unanticipated high tire wear – the lead Hyundai driver’s decision to fit hards on the front and softs on the rear, rather than a cross-pattern, backfired.
That put him slowest of the Rally1 drivers, 14.4s off Rovanperä’s benchmark and wiping out Mikkelsen’s entire advantage in one stage – albeit the longest of the rally.
“The balance is a bit strange with hards on the front and softs on the rear,” admitted Mikkelsen. “We were quite safe, trie to stay in the liens but looks like we need to attack much harder.”
Rovanperä arrived in Poland on Wednesday with no prior preparation, having not watched any stage videos before being called up at the last minute to replace Sébastien Ogier.
But on the second pass of the Stanczyki he felt much more at ease and was fastest by 4.7s from his Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans.
“Definitely more fun in the afternoon now when I know where I’m going,” remarked the reigning world champion.
Mārtiņš Sesks, making his Rally1 debut in a hybrid-less Ford Puma, was also passed by Rovanperä but is clinging to third despite his power deficit to the other cars. He was third-fastest on SS5 and is still only 1.3s off the lead, though Evans behind has closed the gap to 1.1s.
Toyota’s decision to equip all three of its drivers with two hards and three softs has proven effective so far; those who’d taken a full complement of softs struggled by comparison.
Adrien Fourmaux’s reaction told the story once arriving at the finish line: he paused for several seconds and stared into space when asked about whether he’d made the wrong tire call.
“It’s gonna be difficult this afternoon,” he said. “I was really surprised, I expected ruts; everyone says Poland is rutted, it’s soft. But now it’s a hard base.
“It’s like in Sardinia, Tergu-Osilio,” added Fourmaux, referencing Sardinia’s highly abrasive stage that has a reputation for excessive tire wear.
M-Sport still holds fifth and sixth place, though Grégoire Munster’s charge has started to slip; he wis now six seconds behind his more experienced team-mate and 15.2s off the top spot.
Takamoto Katsuta felt he was now going “in the right direction” and it showed in the stage times. After spending most of Friday morning languishing at the foot of the timesheets, he went fourth-fastest on Stanczyki’s second pass and reduced the gap to seventh-placed Thierry Neuville to 2.8s.
Printsport’s Sami Pajari blitzed the field in WRC2 on SS5, besting Kajetan Kajetanowicz by 6.4s to almost double his lead to 11.1s.
Josh McErlean has moved past Nikolay Gryazin to take the final podium position by half a second and is the leading member of the Toksport army.
WRC2 title contenders and McErlean’s team-mates Oliver Solberg and Gus Greensmith are still languishing well down the order in eighth and 10th place respectively, with Greensmith complaining that his car can’t drive in a straight line.
