The world rally champion finished fourth on Croatia’s asphalt roads after a difficult event that was hampered by a lack of outright pace on Friday and a wheel failure.
Rovanpera lost more than two minutes when he struck the same pothole on stage 2 as Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who also suffered a flat tyre.
The Finn however struggled to find the sweet spot in his GR Yaris until Saturday, when he reeled off four stage wins to haul himself up the leaderboard. The fastest time on stage 9 was his first stage win since Sweden in February.
After coming through a tense head-to-head with Ogier to seal fourth, Rovanpera said: “A difficult weekend - and I need to prepare better on the set-up side. We cannot start rallies like this.”
He then told Autosport: “We didn’t nail the set-up this time and it cost quite a lot of confidence and pace on Friday morning, so we just need to be really sharp and sure that we start with the right car and then we can push from the start.”
Source: Autosport