Hyundai driver Lappi took no risks to complete Sunday morning’s stages safely with a 34-second lead over Evans, who jumped ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux (+48.1s).
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville remained in a comfortable fourth overall (+1m50.6s) as WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg rounded out the top five (+4m51.2s).
The new Super Sunday points format for 2024 added another storyline to proceedings with a sliding scale of points from seven to one on offer for the top seven drivers across the three stages.
After retiring from the rally lead on Friday, Rovanpera’s target was clear as he posted a blistering time to win stage 16 (Vastervik, 25.50km) which kicked off Sunday’s action.
The Finn was 6.3s faster than Toyota team-mate Evans, who managed to wrestle second overall from M-Sport’s Fourmaux.
On the verge of claiming a first WRC outright podium, Fourmaux’s mind was focussed on simply finishing the rally to achieve the milestone.
The Frenchman grazed a snowbank on the way to finishing 28s behind Rovanpera. The effort dropped him five seconds behind Evans in the overall standings.
“For us now, it’s just about consolidating the podium. We took the points for second yesterday. I didn’t take any risk,” said Fourmaux, who held more than minute advantage over Neuville.
Rally leader Lappi held a similar mindset to Fourmaux as he took no risk given the prospect of claiming a first WRC win since 2017.