Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä won the World Rally Championship in Croatia after rising past Hyundai Ott on Power Stage. The victory was the second in a row for a Finn, and the first in his career on asphalt.
24.4. 15:17 • Updated April 24th. 15:48
Toyota Kalle Rovanperä has won the World Rally Championship in Croatia. The Finnish driver won the asphalt race after beating Hyundai There today Power Stage with 5.7 seconds.
Rovanperä took the overall race in 4.3 seconds. For the Finn, the victory was the second in a row and the fourth in his career after the Swedish race.
– I was pretty sure there wasn’t enough time with these tires. Incredible feeling, definitely a very victory for my career. A big thank you to the team and the front car team, Rovanperä is in the mood.
You can watch the culminating moments of the race in the video below.
Hyundain Thierry Neuville ranked third.
Rovanperä was the fastest in Power Stage and thus collected a full 30 points from the race. He has 76 World Championship points from three races, and he ripped 15 points further apart from his second-ever Neuville, who has 47 points.
Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala said he was sure Rovanperä could no longer win.
– We thought that a soft tire is better here, and so Kalle himself said. This boy is a real miracle, Latvala glowed.
Among the legends
Rovanperä became a rare group at the age of 21, as only 12 drivers have previously won the race on snow, gravel and asphalt during the 50-year World Rally Championship. Of these drivers, Finns are Markku Alén, Ari Vatanen, Tommi Mäkinen, Marcus Grönholm mixed Jari-Matti Latvala.
The last time a Finn had won on asphalt was in 2015, when Latvala was number one in Corsica.
The winner of the WRC2 class was taken by a French driver of Citroen Yohan Rossel before the Polish Kajetan Kajetanowiczia and Emil Lindholmia. Lindholm, who won the first podium place of the season, lost to Rossel in Skodalla on October 1, 2009.
Lindholm also boosted his pace by finishing fifth and grabbing one more World Championship point from Power Stage with a more appropriate tire choice than Rally1 drivers.