(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Double world rally champion Kalle Rovanpera was heading for a first home victory in Finland Saturday with his rampant Toyota team ending the penultimate leg with their cars in the top five places.
Rovanpera stretched his lead from 4.9 seconds overnight to 36.1 over teammate Takamoto Katsuta with eight-times world champion Sebastien Ogier third, Elfyn Evans fourth and Sami Pajari fifth.
Briton Evans looks set to take over at the top of the championship after Hyundai's Ott Tanak, who leads by one point, was handed a five-minute penalty and dropped to 14th.
Hyundai had a miserable day with reigning champion Thierry Neuville, second overnight, and Adrien Fourmaux suffering punctures that sent them plunging down the order to sixth and seventh respectively.
“I just tried to keep a good pace,” said Rovanpera.“Obviously there was no need to take any crazy risks but I still wanted to go fast so that I've the feeling for tomorrow morning.
“I have the feeling we need to go quite fast tomorrow. It's going to be a big day.”
Neuville said it was now just a question of getting as many points as possible.
“Obviously any good result and any hope for the championship is basically gone,” said the Belgian.“We needed a good result here, and we won't get any.”

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