Flying Finn in the fog
Not that anyone needed it, but Kalle Rovanpera send a reminder of his brilliance in treacherously foggy conditions in Rally Chile.
The fearless Finn, driving part-time for Toyota in the 2024 Fia World Rally Championship, took his fourth win of his “resting up” season, denying his teammate Elfyn Evans his first victory of the year.
Round 11’s tyre testing Chile event saw Hyundai’s Thierry Neville heading in with a chance to clinch his maiden title, but it was clear from early on that the Toyota GR Yaris machines would be denying Hyundai a second straight win after its podium sweep in Greece.
The rally would be marked by dense Saturday and Sunday fog, which saw near invisibility as the field ascended into the mountain passes, which was where Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen took control over a rightfully cautious Evans.
Chile also saw fellow Toyota part-timer Sebastien Ogier drop out of championship contention, who after looking a threat on Friday, broke a steering arm on Saturday to deny his push for a ninth WRC title.
In the end, it was the 23-year old two-time defending champion that mastered the danger of the fog, taking it out by +23.4 seconds from Evans, with Ott Tanak taking third (+43.9 off Rovanpera) to remain a highly slim chance of challenging for the title.
In rough road conditions that the victorious Finn admitted wasn’t his strongpoint, Rovanpera’s main goal was to keep Toyota in the manufacturers fight.
“This win feels really good for us. It was a tough weekend and it always feels good when you’ve really had to fight for a victory,” he said at the finish line.
“It wasn’t easy at any point with all of the weather and everything…on Friday I wasn’t feeling comfortable, but we made it through without any big mistakes.
“It was important to push today and together with our team-mates we scored really important points for the manufacturers’ championship and we can be very happy with that.”
Ahead of Thursday’s Shakedown, the ten car Rally 1 field welcomed back impressive Latvian Martin Sesks back into the Ford MSport ranks along with Gregoire Munster, whilst Esapekka Lappi returned for Hyundai, and the other promising future talent – Sami Pajari – making another appearance for Toyota.
Three days, 16 stages, and 306.76km of competitive tyre testing distance greeted the field, with Lappi pacing the 6.79km warm-up.
After initially topping Friday’s six stages with a narrow 0.4 second advantage, Ott Tanak was stripped of the lead after Evans’ opening stage received an updated notional time, which put him ahead by three seconds for Saturday morning.
Although Ogier claimed three stages to look the dominant force, the Frenchman ran wide in SS3 to lose a 30 second lead, whilst midday service tweaks saw Tanak haul them in, searching for his third straight Chile win.
Saturday saw a testing 140 km of altitude rallying on the cards, with Evans looking on the money to break his 2024 duck after the early going before the great fog rolled in.
Evans enjoyed a 13s cushion after taking three of the first four stages, but was caught out as the last driver out for the final two stages of the day, with Rovanpera 20 seconds better than anyone to lead by 15.1s overnight.
“Huge fog…I have never done anything like this, it’s crazy. You drive and you are just trying to stay on the road,” he described.
Neuville also fought back from sixth to be in fourth behind Tanak.
The final day had 54.8km of action, with the fog hanging about and the roads staying damp; conditions more suited to the Finn’s liking.
He set up the 15th win of his career by staying ahead of Evans throughout, whilst Ogier claimed all four stages to add some bonus points, whilst Neuville would finish in fourth with a 29 point title lead, and simply needs to outscore his Estonian teammate to clinch the title in Central Europe.
Toyota’s one-two and Ogier’s Sunday point haul also closed the manufacturer gap to 17 points to the i20N squad.
In the WRC2, Citroen C3 Rally2 drivers Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin finished eighth and ninth overall respectively, with Gus Greensmith in third – tenth outright – whilst Rally3 Ford driver Diego Dominguez took the class win to also claim the third tier title.
The penultimate round of the season heads for the tri-country Central European round on October 17-20, with two asphalt rally’s set to close out the season. Starting out in southeast Germany, the rally also travels through Australia and the Czech Republic, with the season then drawing to close in Japan come late November.
WRC STANDINGS AFTER 11 ROUNDS
- Neuville/Wydaeghe 207
- Tanak/Jarveoja 178
- Ogier /Landais 166
- Evans/Martin 161
- Fourmaux/Coria 140
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