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Last year’s Sweden winner Rovanpera expected a tough fight opening the snow-covered roads as the best-placed of the full-time WRC drivers at the previous round in Monte Carlo.
Rovanpera was able to show flashes of speed to score six stage wins, more than another driver, but could only finish fourth after losing a fight with Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
The 22-year-old ultimately finished, 25.1s behind eventual winner M-Sport’s Ott Tanak, who claimed a solitary stage win.
The reigning world champion particularly struggled for speed on the second pass of stages that had become rutted. At times Rovanpera was critical of his car’s set-up and was also lucky to reach the finish after a rare wild spin on Stage 13.
To further outline the situation, Rovanpera even elected not to push to win the powerstage to ensure he wouldn’t have to start the next month’s visit to Mexico first on the road, dropping to second, three points behind Tanak in the championship standings.
Rovanpera wasn’t the only Toyota driver to …