Kalle Rovanperä, who secured the World Rally Championship on Sunday, has practically reached the same point average as a year ago, even though he has won fewer races.
SpongeBob Forsberg,
Samuli Niemi-Hukkala
Kalle Rovanperä achieved his second consecutive world championship at the age of 23. Before Rovanperä’s first place last year, the youngest world champion had succeeded at the age of 27 Colin McRae.
In addition to Rovanperä, they were able to defend their first title in the very next season Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasio, Tommi Mäkinen, Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier.
Jyväskyläistähti is not only age records, but also in the average points of this and the previous season’s World Cup.
Rovanperä has taken a huge leap from his first full-scale Toyota World Cup season in 2021.
At that time, the promising young driver finished fourth in the World Championship with 142 points and netted an average of 11.83 points per race.
You get 25 points for winning the World Championship and five points for the first place in the Power Stage.
The following season culminated in Rovanperä’s historic World Cup title. 255 points were scored, no less than 19.62 per race.
This season, Rovanperä’s pace has been almost exactly the same, 19.58 points per competition, even though he has won only three races compared to the six first places in the previous season. There is still one race left to drive.
– Rovanperä and the map reader Jonne Halttunen have been the most consistent in this year’s series. The second championship came with a steady execution. It says that the championship came even though he won fewer races than last year, the Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala analyze after the race.
The king of decision making
Rovanperä has become an expert especially in the Power Stage special tests that culminate the rallies. He has won them in the current season as many as the others combined.
The world champion has won no less than six of the 12 Power Stages of the season and collected 43 points from them.
Rovanperä’s lead in the World Series is an unreachable 44 points before the final race in Japan.
Behind Rovanperä Elfyn Evans has won two Power Stages this season. Thierry Neuville, Ott TänakSebastien Ogier and Esapekka Lappi have reached one victory each.
Rovanperä has been number one on the Power Stage of all his winning rallies. Only Evans and Ogier have achieved the same once this season.
The driver from Jyväskylä has his own readings when you look at the World Championship points received from the Power Stage this season. Rovanperä has captured an average of 3.58 points from them, which is almost a point more than Evans, who finished second in the World Series.
Rovanperä has already become the best Finn in Power Stage overall wins, fourth place. He has 17 No. 1 positions, while Ogier, the all-time No. 1, has 43.
Win percentage better than Mäki and Grönholm
Since the mid-1990s, four men have won several World Rally Championship titles: Tommi Mäkinen (1996–1999), Marcus Grönholm (2000 and 2002), Sebastien Loeb (2004–2012) and Sebastien Ogier (2013–2018, 2020–2021).
When you look at the winning percentages of the rally giants in question in their first three full World Cup seasons, Rovanperä can be compared to the legends. Nine-time world champion Loeb is slightly ahead of the others with a reading of 32.61.
Rovanperä is currently the next best before conditions rally legends Mäki and Grönholm.
This season, Rovanperä has shown the discretion required of a multi-champion, and has not pushed for victories.
– Kalle has managed to take fourth and fifth place. He has thought about the whole more through reason. He has been driving like a Christmas cake. Let’s take the points that are enough for the championship, Jari-Matti Latvala described.
Rovnperä is very likely to sign an extension contract with top team Toyota, which has already secured the marque championship, so he has a good opportunity to write sport history in the future as well.