WRC: Leading Rovanpera reveals key challenge in Naivasha action
Leading Kalle Rovanpera has revealed the main challenge he has to contend with as the World Rally Championship actions pick up speed in Naivasha.
The Finn is tackling a tight rope of speed and caution as he leads the event after the Saturday morning action.
“It’s not easy with the big gap. You don’t want to be too flow, but you also don’t want to take too many risks," Rovanperra told WRC.
Rovanpera headed three Toyota GR Yaris cars by almost one minute coming into this penultimate leg as his team-mates Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta started the day in podium position.
As Rovanpera leads after the penultimate stage, his Toyota teammates fell afoul of the brutal conditions.
That dynamic had flipped by the time crews returned for lunchtime service in Naivasha after Evans punctured in Soysambu and Sleeping Warrior and Katsuta faced similar troubles in the latter.
However, the pair slipped to fifth and third respectively and thus elevated Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville to second overall.
The Finn stretched his lead to 1m 27.9s over Neuville, who is on a comeback drive after facing tyre troubles himself on Friday, and a heavy bump towards the end of the rain-dotted Sleeping Warrior was the Belgian’s only real complaint. 
Tanak, Lappi start
His i20 N colleagues Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi both restarted after retiring on Friday. Tanak pulled over in SS8 to secure a loose bonnet pin and intercom failure meant he relied on hand signals from co-driver Martin Jarveoja in the following test. Lappi, meanwhile, sustained two damaged tyres.
Katsuta, although frustrated, completed the podium 55.0s behind Neuville while M-Sport Ford youngster Adrien Fourmaux climbed to fourth in his Puma, 27.7s behind. Grégoire Munster retired his similar car with broken rear suspension after SS8.
Sixth-placed Gus Greensmith continued his stronghold on the WRC2 category ahead of his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 rival Oliver Solberg while Jourdan Serderidis, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Nicolas Ciamin rounded out the top 10.
