WRC Croatia: Rovanpera extends lead as Tanak tyre gamble backfires

Toyota driver Rovanpera increased his advantage over Tanak to 28.4s with two stages remaining after the 2019 world champion's gamble to fit soft tyres backfired.

In a bid to try to reel in Rovanpera’s 19.9s overnight margin, the Estonian opted for an alternate tyre strategy, but lost significant time on the day’s opening stage to put the hard tyre-shod Rovanpera in the box seat for victory.

The fight for the final podium place took another twist as Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville leapfrogged M-Sport’s Craig Breen after winning Stage 18.

Neuville, who held second on Friday evening before being hit with a one minute time penalty when a suspected alternator issue caused him to clock into service late, opened up a 7.8s gap over Breen heading towards the asphalt event’s climax.

Elfyn Evans held onto fifth position ahead of Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, who completed the Rally1 runners that have run the full distance.    

Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi once again lit up the timing screens kicking off the final day by scoring his fourth stage win of the event on Stage 17.

The Finn, who rejoined the rally on Saturday having retired after clipping a boulder on Stage 1, set a blistering time which was 0.8s faster than rally leader Rovanpera.

However, it was Rovanpera’s effort that was the talking point as the Finn’s decision to opt for hard tyres paid dividends on the dry asphalt road. He took 11.2s out of nearest rival Tanak, leaving him 31.1s behind with three stages left to run.

“The tyres aren't working, it's quite dry,” said Tanak. “We were scared quite a lot with the possible rain and now it's quite sunny, but we had to take the gamble.”

Taking soft tyres didn't pay off for Tanak on Sunday morning's first stage

Photo by: Austral /