The Toyota driver came under pressure from Hyundai's Tanak after losing almost a minute to the 2019 world champion following a front left puncture on Stage 11 earlier this morning.
Tanak managed to close to within 13s of Rovanpera during the afternoon before the rally leader fought back winning the final stage of the day, his seventh fastest time of the event, to extend his overall lead to 19.9s.
Tanak emerged as Rovanpera’s nearest rival after his Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville was hit with a one minute penalty overnight for speeding on a road section that dropped the Belgian from second to fourth overall.
M-Sport-Ford’s Craig Breen ended the day in the final podium position but only has slender 4.9s advantage over Neuville in fourth. Neuville started the day 28.8s behind Breen but produced a stirring fightback despite battling against an engine issue.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ended the day in fifth after moving up a position following Oliver Solberg’s crash on stage 9, that resulted in his Hyundai catching fire. Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson escaped the incident unharmed.
Takamoto Katsuta was the last of the Rally1 cars, to have completed the full distance thus far, in sixth.
For the first time this weekend crews faced sunny and dry conditions for the first of the afternoon’s stages, a repeat of the test that was cancelled after Solberg’s high-speed crash.
Retuning to the action after a collision with a boulder ended his Friday early, Esapekka Lappi notched up his second stage win of the day as the Toyota driver pipped Neuville to the fastest time by 0.7s.
Neuville’s time arrived despite his Hyundai suffering from an engine problem that limited him to 40% throttle for the final five kilometres.
Battling a gearbox issue, Tanak took more time out of rally leader Rovanpera, cutting the overall deficit to 13s as the latter elected for a more cautious approach after the earlier puncture.
Lappi struck again on Stage 14 to claim a hat trick of fastest times, this time he had a 2.7s margin over Neuville, who confirmed that his engine was working normally in the stage.
Neuville’s pace allowed him to take more time out of the gap to Breen, sitting in third overall, with the gap coming down to 5.9s.
Rovanpera managed to get the better of Tanak which saw his overall lead extend back out to 14.8s.
The crews were forced to skip Stage 15 as event organisers cancelled the stage for safety reasons due to poor visibility, as thick fog descended around the 15.85km test.
The final stage of the day, held in the late evening sun, was won by Rovanpera by 3.4s from team-mate Lappi.
"This is my reply. It was a good stage - full send,” said Rovanpera when asked if this was a reply to Tanak’s pressure.
Neuville managed to claw another second back over Breen after beating the Irishman to the third fastest time in the stage.
Rally Croatia concludes on Sunday after four more stages.
Results:
| Cla | Driver/Codriver | Car | Total Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen
| Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:10'18.500 | |||
| 2 |
 Thierry Neuville Martijn Wydaeghe
| Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:10'23.100 | 4.600 | 4.600 | |
| 3 |
 Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja
| Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:10'33.300 | 14.800 | 10.200 | |
| 4 |
 Craig Breen Paul Nagle
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:11'27.200 | 1'08.700 | 53.900 | |
| 5 |
 Elfyn Evans Scott Martin
| Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:12'21.400 | 2'02.900 | 54.200 | |
| 6 |
 Takamoto Katsuta Aaron Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:15'58.200 | 5'39.700 | 3'36.800 | |
| 7 |
 Yohan Rossel Valentin Sarreaud
| Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:18'16.400 | 7'57.900 | 2'18.200 | |
| 8 |
 Nikolay Gryazin Konstantin Aleksandrov | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:18'55.800 | 8'37.300 | 39.400 | |
| 9 |
 Kajetan Kajetanowicz Maciek Szczepaniak
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:19'12.400 | 8'53.900 | 16.600 | |
| 10 |
Emil Lindholm Reeta Hämäläinen | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:19'41.100 | 9'22.600 | 28.700 | |
| 11 |
Chris Ingram Craig Drew
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:20'32.100 | 10'13.600 | 51.000 | |
| 12 |
Eric Camilli Thibault De la Haye | Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:20'44.100 | 10'25.600 | 12.000 | |
| 13 |
Stéphane Lefebvre Andy Malfoy | Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:21'00.600 | 10'42.100 | 16.500 | |
| 14 |
Sami Pajari Enni Mälkönen | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:22'44.300 | 12'25.800 | 1'43.700 | |
| 15 |
Robert Virves Aleks Lesk | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:22'46.400 | 12'27.900 | 2.100 | |
| 16 |
Erik Cais Petr Těšínský | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:23'00.500 | 12'42.000 | 14.100 | |
| 17 |
Lauri Joona Mikael Korhonen
| Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:23'47.500 | 13'29.000 | 47.000 | |
| 18 |
Gus Greensmith  Jonas Andersson
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:24'11.100 | 13'52.600 | 23.600 | |
| 19 |
Mikko Heikkilä Samu Vaaleri | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:25'37.200 | 15'18.700 | 1'26.100 | |
| 20 |
Mikołaj Marczyk Szymon Gospodarczyk
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:25'50.700 | 15'32.200 | 13.500 | |
| 21 |
Armin Kremer  Timo Gottschalk
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:26'00.000 | 15'41.500 | 9.300 | |
| 22 |
 Sean Johnston Alexander Kihurani | Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:26'03.800 | 15'45.300 | 3.800 | |
| 23 |
Johannes Keferbock Ilka Minor | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:28'07.600 | 17'49.100 | 2'03.800 | |
| 24 |
Jean-Baptiste Franceschi Anthony Gorguilo | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:28'13.100 | 17'54.600 | 5.500 | |
| 25 |
 Benito Guerra  Daniel Cue
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:29'16.800 | 18'58.300 | 1'03.700 | |
| 26 |
Mauro Miele Luca Beltrame | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:29'33.300 | 19'14.800 | 16.500 | |
| 27 |
Olivier Burri Anderson Levratti | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:30'01.400 | 19'42.900 | 28.100 | |
| 28 |
Pierre Ragues Julien Pesenti | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:31'31.400 | 21'12.900 | 1'30.000 | |
| 29 |
 Aljosa Novak Uroš Ocvirk | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:34'29.000 | 24'10.500 | 2'57.600 | |
| 30 |
Darko Peljhan Matej Čar | Škoda Fabia R5 | 2:36'45.100 | 26'26.600 | 2'16.100 | |
| 31 |
Róbert Bútor Róbert Tagai | Peugeot 208 Rally4 | 2:37'21.400 | 27'02.900 | 36.300 | |
| 32 |
Jari Huttunen Mikko Lukka | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:39'30.900 | 29'12.400 | 2'09.500 | |
| 33 |
Alfred Kramer Jeannette Andersson | Peugeot 208 Rally4 | 2:39'54.600 | 29'36.100 | 23.700 | |
| 34 |
Vlastimil Majerčák Jakub Slovák | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:40'38.700 | 30'20.200 | 44.100 | |
| 35 |
Zoltán László Tamás Kürti | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:43'56.000 | 33'37.500 | 3'17.300 | |
| 36 |
 Enrico Brazzoli Manuel Fenoli
| Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:45'05.400 | 34'46.900 | 1'09.400 | |
| 37 |
Fabrizio Arengi Massimiliano Bosi | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:45'12.100 | 34'53.600 | 6.700 | |
| 38 |
Viliam Prodan Zoran Raštegorac | Renault Clio Rally4 | 2:45'14.600 | 34'56.100 | 2.500 | |
| 39 |
Neil Simpson Michael Gibson | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:45'34.700 | 35'16.200 | 20.100 | |
| 40 |
Martin Ravenščak Marko Stiperski | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 2:45'41.000 | 35'22.500 | 6.300 | |
| 41 |
Ivica Siladić Jasna Durak | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:46'50.700 | 36'32.200 | 1'09.700 | |
| 42 |
Niko Pulic Aleksandra Kovačić | Škoda Fabia R5 | 2:46'58.100 | 36'39.600 | 7.400 | |
| 43 |
Lazar Milovanović Goran Rabasović | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 2:47'41.100 | 37'22.600 | 43.000 | |
| 44 |
Krešimir Ravenščak Dora Ravenščak | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 2:51'52.100 | 41'33.600 | 4'11.000 | |
| 45 |
Georg Linnamäe James Morgan
| Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:52'05.000 | 41'46.500 | 12.900 | |
| 46 |
McRae Kimathi Mwangi Kioni | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:52'35.600 | 42'17.100 | 30.600 | |
| 47 |
Filippo Marchino Roberto Briani | Škoda Fabia R5 | 2:54'05.100 | 43'46.600 | 1'29.500 | |
| 48 |
 Henk Vossen Hans van Goor | Ford Fiesta R5 | 2:59'34.700 | 49'16.200 | 5'29.600 | |
| 49 |
Ricardo Trivino Marc Marti
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:02'10.400 | 51'51.900 | 2'35.700 | |
| 50 |
Pierre-Louis Loubet Vincent Landais
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 3:15'22.900 | 1:05'04.400 | 13'12.500 | |
| 51 |
Jan Pokos Viljem Ošlaj | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 3:18'31.200 | 1:08'12.700 | 3'08.300 | |
| 52 |
Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm
| Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 3:29'22.100 | 1:19'03.600 | 10'50.900 | |
| 53 |
William Creighton Liam Regan | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 3:36'47.600 | 1:26'29.100 | 7'25.500 | |
| 54 |
Carlo Covi Michela Lorigiola | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:40'15.100 | 1:29'56.600 | 3'27.500 | |
| 55 |
Osamu Fukunaga Misako Saida | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:43'05.900 | 1:32'47.400 | 2'50.800 | |
| 56 |
Željko Magličić Ivan Poljak | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 3:49'22.000 | 1:39'03.500 | 6'16.100 | |
| 57 |
Cristiana Oprea Andrei Mitrașcă | Peugeot 208 R2 | 4:10'45.000 | 2:00'26.500 | 21'23.000 | |
| View full results | ||||||
