The speed of the reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä in Toyota’s WRC rally drives was too much for his team mate Elfyn Evans on the opening day of the Arctic Circle SM Rally.
Timo Uusitalo,
Jussi Jäkälä
Two-time rally world champion Kalle Rovanperä23, is gassing up this weekend at the Tunturiralli, now called Artic Lapland Rally, in Rovaniemi.
Rovanperä started the competition strongly as expected, where the rally comet chasing Toyota shook the bottom times on Friday in the first four special tests. Teammate only in the short final stage Elfyn Evans was 0.2 seconds faster than the Finn.
Rovanperä is leading the rally by 24.6 seconds ahead of Evans before the second day of the race, which starts at 8:43 on Saturday. The third one Teemu Asunmaa is at the top of the SM rally. He is already 2:40.9 behind Rovanpera.
Rovanperä and Evans are testing their car in Lapland for the Swedish World Rally Championship in a couple of weeks.
– It’s always good to compare with others in a race. Against a teammate, it’s fair for the drivers, but of course you can’t find out the car’s speed because you can’t compare it to other (WRC teams), explained Rovanperä.
– It has been a good feeling to drive so far. Fortunately, we got better weather here after the showers. The roads are in great condition. There is still work to be done with the car, and I am not quite satisfied with it yet. That’s why we’re here (testing).
Overall situation after 5/12 EK:
1. Kalle Rovanperä, Toyota 36.16,1
2. Elfyn Evans, Toyota +24.6
3. Teemu Asunmaa, Skoda +2.40.9
4. Mikko Heikkilä, Toyota +2.46.1
5. Roope Korhonen, Toyota +2.59,3
6. Nikolai Grjazin, Citroen +3.06,0
7. Benjamin Korhola, Hyundai +3.11,8
8. Niclas Grönholm, Skoda +3.21,6
9. Georg Linnamäki, Toyota +3.26,2
10. Anssi Rytkönen, Skoda +3.45,1
11. Jari-Matti Latvala, Toyota +3.55,4
Did the tough regulations for the Swedish World Rally Championship start to be found yet?
– Maybe the car is starting to be inside the frame. Changes were made in the day care, and after that I felt better. Little steps were taken forward again, said Rovanperä.
Evans didn’t smile too much when the conversation turned to Rovanperä’s pace.
– We are looking for adjustments here for the Swedish World Cup competition, that is the most important thing. It’s not the end of the world if he (Kalle) beats me here, the second-generation Welsh rally driver commented.
Latvala was surprised that Hyundai is not involved
Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala drive in the SM rally in the general competition with a Rally2 series car after the first day on the 11th, about four minutes from Rovanpera.
– Third time now in Tunturi, it’s great to be driving by yourself and feel it. The goal would be to get through this this time. At the same time, I have been able to talk with Kalle. There are a lot of things that you can watch during transitions.
– I assumed that Hyundai would have come here to test their car when they knew Toyota was involved. I’m a bit surprised by that. Sillon could have made a direct comparison all along, Latvala talked.
The Lapland SM Rally has the same type of roads as in Umeå in a couple of weeks.
– The most important thing here are the long corners, they are the most critical and that’s where the differences are also made in Sweden. The most crucial thing is to make the car work in long corners. In that sense, this rally serves Umeå well, explained Toyota’s team boss.
Rovanperä shuddered at the end of last year when he said he would only drive half of the rally World Series season this year.
The World Rally Championship season started last weekend in Monte Carlo. Suomalaištahti didn’t really follow the race. Rovanperä said that he watched a few special tests and the Power Stage that ended the race.
So Rovanperä was aware of the final results. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville caught the full 30 points. Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans had to settle for other podium places.
Evans started strongly but eventually fell far behind Neuville. According to Evans, he lost the feel of the ride and was even a little upset about it. However, he did not want to raise his risk level too high in the final race.
– Monte was not the best from our team. Hyundai and Thierry were really strong. We have room for improvement, Rovanperä described.
The second day of the Rovaniemi Championship Rally starts on Saturday at 8:43 am. Summary of the events of the Rovaniemi SM Rally on Sunday on TV2 and Areena at 19:45.