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Rovanperä overtook Neuville on Friday afternoon and capitalized on his later starting position for a commanding lead.
Setting the pace at the Baltic fixture of the World Rally Championship, Kalle Rovanperä produced a top performance this Saturday, taking a giant leap towards his unprecedented third straight victory.
The 22-year-old, who holds the record as the youngest WRC event winner in history, posted nine consecutive benchmark times, leading to an early lead over Hyundai rival Thierry Neuville.
Rovanperä overtook Neuville on Friday afternoon and capitalized on his later starting position for a commanding lead.
Unbeatable throughout the day, the Finnish driver outperformed Neuville on every stage, extending his advantage to 34.9 seconds.
Neuville's efforts were further hindered by a slow puncture in Otepää 2.
Rovanperä's strong performance puts him in a solid position to extend his FIA World Rally Championship lead at this eighth round, pending Sunday's finale.
"For sure the feeling is nice," an elated Rovanperä remarked. "I have really enjoyed the afternoon especially; it has been really nice.”
“The car is working well and these are my favourite stages of the entire calendar, so why wouldn't I be enjoying them at full speed? A lot of fans as well, it's really cool."
Neuville admitted his performance was slightly lacking in the morning's opening stages but managed to post the second-best times on five occasions.
However, he conceded that overtaking Rovanperä in the final four speed tests would be an uphill task.
"There's just a little bit missing to match the pace of Kalle," he said, "but without the puncture, I think it would have been a perfect day."
Esapekka Lappi claimed the third podium spot, 10.5 seconds behind team-mate Neuville, after a thrilling battle with Elfyn Evans.
Evans, piloting a Toyota Yaris, had come within seven-tenths of a second to Lappi by the day's midpoint but ended 7.3 seconds behind by the afternoon.
Teemu Suninen, in his Hyundai i20N debut, maintained a respectable fifth place overall, while M-Sport Ford's Pierre-Louis Loubet settled for sixth, collecting a five-second time penalty for breaching hybrid strategy rules on Friday.
Takamoto Katsuta and Ott Tänak rounded out the seventh and eighth positions respectively.
Andreas Mikkelsen is set to claim his second WRC2 triumph of the season and held ninth place overall in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, with Sami Pajari rounding out the top 10.
With the final leg featuring 61.08km of action on Sunday, spectators and participants are eagerly awaiting the conclusion of what has been a thrilling Rally Estonia.
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