Juha Kankkunen’s fate awaits Kalle Rovanperä – Jari-Matti Latvala’s assessment was right in the worst possible way

The World Cup rally in Jyväskylä slowed down dully. Myhinpää’s special test surprisingly turned out to be a decisive special test in Kalle Rovanperä’s victory, writes Roope Visuri of Urheilu.

broadcasts the events of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship comprehensively: Listen live from Ralliradio from start to finish and watch the highlight clips fresh from ‘s highly popular rally coverage.

JYVÄSKYLÄ.

First Ott Tänak outside. Then Esapekka Lappi outside. And still Kalle Rovanperä outside. Last year’s podium trio of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship is this year on the sidelines from the battle for victory already after the opening day. No one could have believed such a thing. For a while, the World Rally Championship has not seen an opening day when three winning candidates remain in the peleki.

When we put this on again Pierre-Louis Loubet, as many as four Rally1 car drivers were sidelined. Only five drove to the end on Friday.

We went to this Jyväskylä World Cup Rally in an exceptionally exciting atmosphere. Rovanperä once again in the big World Championship points lead and the biggest advance favorite to win the race. Lappi performed cheerfully and talked about repeating the victory six years ago. Jari-Matti Latvala back behind the wheel of a rally car.

Now all that’s left is Latvala, who charmed us with his cheerful interviews. In the rainy weather at Paviljongi’s service park, the atmosphere was very subdued from early Friday evening, even though there were loyal Finnish fans against Rovanperä.

What made the interruption particularly poignant was that, despite his challenging first starting position, the Finnish top name in the World Championship was flying quite a bit before going down.

Before the opening day, there was tension about how much Rovanperä would possibly suffer from his role as a plowman on gravel roads.

Toyota team manager Latvala, who is also competing this weekend, told Urheilu on Friday that the legendary special test in Myhinpää could be decisive for Rovanperä’s dreams of victory.

Latvala then talked about how the added loose gravel due to the heavy rains in Myhinpää could be a big disadvantage for Rovanpera. At the time, Latvala estimated that losing more than ten seconds per run could be too much of a challenge during the weekend, despite the better starting positions.

But what else! The Finn played five bottom times in a row, including in the dreaded Myhinpää.

With the second move, Myhinpää decided the Rovanperä rally. Latvala’s assessment was correct, but only in a slightly different form. In a more boring form.

The fate of the reigning world champion inevitably brings to mind one of the greats of the rally world, Juha Kankkunen.

Kankkunen was the king of the Finnish World Rally Championship only in his third year of the world championship.

Now Rovanperä can expect a fate comparable to Kankkune. Although Rovanperä is finnishing himself from the suspension, especially in terms of the championship, the Finn’s lead is still at least 25 points over his teammate to Elfyn Evans.

Of course, the “spare cartridge” went in a bad place, but Evans and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville are still far enough away from the championship fight.

Rovanperä is still the biggest champion favorite despite the setback of his home rival.

Rovanperä, who was crowned the youngest rally world champion of all time last year, can still win his second championship in a row this year.

Elfyn Evans’ reaction in Friday’s evening service also told about it. Evans said that, to be honest, he hasn’t thought about the championship at all.

However, from Rovanperä’s point of view, the world championship is still the most important thing, for which they work throughout the season.

It is also very hard to believe that a talent like Rovanperä would stay in his career without Jyväskylä’s victory. This time the exceptional weather could do the trick, but hardly any more in the future. All in all, there are only five other world champions in the history of the World Rally Championship who never won in Jyväskylä. Rovanperä will hardly go down in history as the sixth such driver.