The reigning world rally champion won all nine of the day’s stages held on Estonia’s fast gravel roads, to open up a 34.9s lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville heading into Sunday.
It is the first time the 22-year-old factory Toyota pilot has achieved the feat of nine consecutive stage wins in his WRC career.
Rovanpera was never really threatened by his rivals throughout the day as he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen breezed through 102.61 of competitive stage kilometres.
“I have not done that [win nine stages in a row] before, for sure,” Rovanpera told Autosport.
“It is not the main point though, the main point is that it came quite easily. I was enjoying the driving a lot we just had our own pace.
Asked what it feels likes when success is coming easily, he replied: “It is relaxing and you don’t need to stress about anything. You can just go with the flow and you know all the stages, you know your pace and you can just enjoy the driving.”
Source: Autosport