The reigning world champion delivered his best display of the season to date to transform a 3.0s overnight advantage into a 34.9s over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Neuville lost 6.5s to a slow puncture during the morning loop but was unable to match the pace of the Toyota driver.
Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi will head into Sunday with a 7.3s margin over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans after an intense battle over third that ebbed and flowed over the day.
Teemu Suninen ended the day in a lonely fifth (+1m41.5s) on his Rally1 debut ahead of M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet (+2m25.5s), Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (+2m32.5s), and home hero Ott Tanak, who recovered to eighth (+5m55.2s) after starting the day in 11th position.
After a clean sweep of the morning’s four stages, Rovanpera’s relentless pace showed no signs of abating when the action resumed on Saturday afternoon.
The Toyota driver notched up his fifth consecutive fastest time in Stage 13 (Elva 11.73km) with a time 3.6s faster than his nearest rival Neuville. It was a result that came as a surprise to the rally leader.
"I was sure that for the first time today it was not a good time. I was not pushing much, for sure the driving was clean, but I felt like I left some time in there,” said Rovanpera.
Lappi was only 0.2s slower than team-mate Neuville but crucially the Finn was 0.6s quicker than Evans to edge further clear in the fight for third overall.
Outside of the battle for the podium places, Tanak’s pass through the stage was hampered by a steering rack issue that he claimed stemmed from mistake made during the midday service. He was able to rectify the geometry of his Puma before stage 14 (Kanepi, 16.48km).
Rovanpera extended his stage winning streak in Kanepi with yet another mesmerising performance. Neuville had posted a benchmark that seemed a contender to challenge for a stage win before Rovanpera blew that out of the water by 3.8s to extend his rally lead to 27.7s.
Lappi once again had the edge over Evans to put 3.7s between himself and the Welshman as the fight for third overall continued.
Source: Autosport