Winner last year in Estonia and solid leader of the World Championship, the 21-year-old managed to catch up with Evans during the afternoon, posting the best time on the last three stages of the day, dominated until then with a masterful hand by the Welshman.
At the start of SS9, the last special of the day, the Finn was only about ten seconds behind Evans.
Badly engaged on this special, the Welshman lost the lead in the race, which he had held since dawn.
He points Friday evening to 11 sec 7/10ths of his rival.
Behind the leading duo, the Estonian Ott Tänak (Hyundai), third, is more than 44 seconds away.
The Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), occupies the 5th provisional place Friday evening, more than 1 min 10 sec from Rovanperä.
Nine other special stages are scheduled for Saturday (SS10 to SS18), i.e. just over 130 km timed, and another four on Sunday morning (SS19 to SS24) to close this 7th round of the 2022 championship.
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Provisional classification of Rally Estonia, seventh round of the World Rally Championship (WRC), at the end of the second day on Friday:
1. Kalle Rovanperä - Jonne Halttunen (FIN / Toyota) in 1h16:19.7
2. Elfyn Evans - Scott Martin (GBR/Toyota) +11.7
3. Ott Tänak - Martin Järveoja (EST / Hyundai) +44.3
4. Esapekka Lappi-Janne Ferm (FIN/Toyota) +1:05.9
5. Thierry Neuville - Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL/Hyundai) +1:12.9
6. Adrien Fourmaux - Alexandre Coria (FRA / M-Sport Ford) +2:08.1
7. Takamoto Katsuta - Aaron Johnston (JPN-IRL/Toyota) +2:10.9
8. Gus Greensmith - Jonas Andersson (GBR-SWE/M-Sport Ford) +2:29.4
9. Pierre-Louis Loubet-Vincent Landais (FRA/M-Sport Ford) +3:59.0
10. Andreas Mikkelsen - Torstein Eriksen (NOR/Skoda) +4:57.4 1st WRC2
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Best times in the special stages:
Evans (SS2, SS3, SS4, SS5, SS6), Breen (SS1), Rovanpera (SS7, SS8, SS9)
Abandonment (for the day):
Craig Breen-Paul Nagle (IRL/M-Sport Ford), car damaged after going off the road (SS4)
© 2022 AFP