Kalle Rovanperä, who drove out of the top spot, says that the shadows of the trees disturbed his driving. Rovanperä is confident about Sunday’s race day.
11.5. 14:47•Updated 11.5. 15:15
Saturday’s driving day of the World Rally Championship in Portugal ended for Toyota Kalle Rovanperän for the dramatic exit. Rovanperä drove out on the 11th special stage and had to retire from the top spot.
In the first special test of the day, Rovanperä took a 6.7-second lead over his teammate to Sebastien Ogierbut the day that started brilliantly ended with a crash at the very next special test.
Rovanperä said that he does not know exactly what happened in the run-out situation. The video shows how Rovanperän and the map reader Jonne Halttunen the car rolled onto its roof while driving out.
The exit took place in a fast right-hand corner. Rovanperä and Halttunen survived the run-out with a scare.
– I wouldn’t say that the sheet music was too optimistic. The only reasonable reason is that the shadows descending on the straight disturbed my field of vision, and I didn’t know exactly where we were, so I pressed the brake too late, Rovanperä said According to the Dirtfish website.
Confusion in notation
Rovanperä admitted to Urheilu that before the outing, the duo had had minor ambiguities with the notation.
– In the previous bend combination, there was a bit of confusion with the notes and Jonne read one note incorrectly. It didn’t affect this place, but I thought about it for a second and missed the brake. Kind of a stupid mistake on my part.
Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala regretted Rovanperä’s second outing of the season to Urheilu. Rovanperä’s first outing of the year took place in the Swedish World Rally Championship held in February.
– He will run fewer races this season and the routine will be less, but I don’t think it will make a difference. When it comes to small differences, you have to try to make solutions, you have to take risks. Sometimes those statistical losses just happen.
Hoping to drive on Sunday
Rovanperä believes that the car will be ready for Sunday’s driving day.
– I believe that the car is actually completely fine. I think it’s drivable if we can get it off the side of the road. The crash looked pretty minor from the outside, even though there was a lot of speed.
Latvala was also hopeful that Rovanperä’s car would be fixed for Sunday’s race day.
– The Celica man starts to do it himself, if the need calls for it, Latvala referred to himself.
Story updated at 15:15: Added Kalle Rovanperä’s quote and video clip from the interview