The second day of Rally Islas Canaries has come to an end. Kalle Rovanperä kept up his dominance on the day.
Day Two Recap (Stages 7-13)
Kalle Rovanperä picked up where he left off after the first day. As the Finnish driver won six of the seven stages on day two. The only stage he lost was SS13 which was a SuperSpecial street stage. Rovanperä takes a 45.7-second lead over Sebastien Ogier into the final day of the event. Hyundai’s struggles continued on Saturday. Despite this Adrien Fourmaux ends the second day in the top five, how? Sami Pajari crashed out on SS12. Interestingly, Hyundai only has one top-five stage time so far this weekend, which came on SS13 when Neuville and Rovanperä tied for the third fastest time. Also, if you’re wondering about the lack of a M-Sport mention, well there’s a reason for that. Both M-Sport drivers are currently fighting WRC2 drivers, as McErlean sits 10th overall, and Munster is 13th overall. If McErlean were registered for WRC2 points this weekend he’d currently be third.
Quotes
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It has been almost another perfect day for us. Kalle has done another really good job, driving fast but also at a speed where he feels comfortable. Everybody is saying that he is back, but he never went away: the speed and the talent has always been there and it was only a matter of time. What happened to Sami is a pity because he had been driving very well until that point. But these things can happen and the damage is not so bad, so we will fix it and he will be ready for tomorrow. We still have four of our drivers in the top four positions, and our car has been working really well here and our drivers have been showing good speed. So we will try to secure this result and fight for all the points tomorrow because we know that we can still face a big fight this season.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This morning the car felt a bit better than yesterday, but we didn’t really seem to gain any time from it. It’s been a bit frustrating not to be fighting closer to the front, but Kalle and Seb have just been a bit faster than us. We were trying to be clean and the pace was OK. We will try to improve and be ready for tomorrow. You have to try to grab every opportunity for points, so we just have to focus on driving well, doing a good job and trying to bring home some points.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Everything has been going really well again today. The stages had a bit of a different style to yesterday and in the first two I was maybe not so comfortable, but I really enjoyed the third one that was more flowing. The afternoon was especially good: we made some really small changes to the car and it felt even better, which was nice. I hope we can have the same feeling tomorrow and that everything continues to come comfortably, because we would need to try and take as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s been good fun to drive the car on these beautiful roads again today. Again, Kalle has had something more than the rest of us but I could achieve my main target to be secure in P2. We have been making some good adjustments on the car and the balance has been suiting me better and better. Now we need to continue like this tomorrow, which will be an important day because we need to make use of this pace and collect some more points for the team.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today was much better than yesterday. We definitely made a step forward. I was quite happy with the car. I feel sorry for Sami that he had to stop because he was doing a very good job. Now I just need to keep focused tomorrow from the first stage and keep pushing. I hope to find a bit more comfort and a bit more pace, but I don’t think we need to change too much.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“We were having another nice and clean day. The pace was coming naturally and it was enjoyable in the car. Unfortunately in SS12 we were a bit too fast in one long corner. I’m not sure what happened because I think I did the same that I did in the morning, but we simply had too much speed and hit the fence. It’s always a pity if things go this way but if we are starting to match the times of the top drivers, then things like this can happen easily. We just need to get back out there tomorrow and try to continue where we left off.”
Hyundai Shell Mobis
Adrien Fourmaux
“We are still missing some performance, but I was really enjoying this afternoon when the balance was ok on the stages. We don’t really know what to expect tomorrow; it will be a big challenge for us. Everything has to go perfect, and while there are a few things we could change, it is also a gamble. We are certainly going to try everything we can to score as many points as possible. ”
Thierry Neuville
“This afternoon went much better than this morning; we had a good balance with the car and I was starting to enjoy my driving. I think we’ve done a good job, and I’m satisfied with it. While we never stop hoping that we can make up more positions, realistically it will be very difficult to do that tomorrow, but we are going to go for points – there is still a lot to play for.”
Ott Tänak
“The first stage of the loops was the most tricky today, but it was possible to slightly enjoy the second and third stages. The roads are really nice to drive on the inside of the car, although the story from the outside is quite different. We were blind testing some changes but the engineers had some good ideas, and step by step we were making some improvements. ”
Pablo Marcos – Hyundai Team Manager
“Today we struggled once again to get our car to work on these technical and unique roads. Much like yesterday, we tried different solutions but clearly, we were still far from the front. The positive to take away is how the team and the drivers were all working together, pulling in the same direction to find a solution. The drivers showed they had a good pace, even if their speed was not of those in front of us, but they were matching each other with quite similar times. We will continue to work on the car for tomorrow, targeting a clean finish to the event, while also waiting to see if something happens that we can benefit from.”