The Toyota driver appeared to make light work of opening the roads to end the day with a slender 3.0s lead over Neuville.
Neuville assumed the rally lead on stage two and held the advantage until stage six when Rovanpera managed to overhaul the Belgian after claiming his second stage win of the event.
However, M-Sport’s Ott Tanak delivered the drive of the day to win five of the seven stages to shoot up 11th in the leaderboard after a five-minute penalty for an engine change on Thursday.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi managed to leapfrog Toyota’s Elfyn Evans across the afternoon to move into third, as 14.1s separated the top four.
Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen ended his first competitive day in a Rally1 car in fifth (+33.8s) ahead of M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet (+48.8s) and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (+1m03.6s). Toksport Skoda driver Andreas Mikkelsen took eighth overall to lead WRC2.
After dominating the times across the morning stages, Tanak’s stage-winning streak was brought to an end on stage five, held under threatening skies.
Tanak opted for a soft set-up on his Puma having expected muddy conditions but the road surface was drier than anticipated. The decision ultimately contributed to Tanak posting the sixth-fastest time, 5.6s off the pace.
The pace was set by Rovanpera, who emerged as the stage winner after battling his way through the now heavily-rutted roads with spots of rain in the air.
Despite the tricky road conditions, Rovanpera closed the gap to rally leader to 2.1s, as Neuville also found the going tough in the damp conditions.
Source: Autosport