Kalle Rovanperä’s abilities were questioned in Monaco’s harbor area. On January 22, 2022, the critics fell silent, writes Urheilu’s rally editor Tomi Tuominen.
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Five out of seven. There’s nothing left to explain. Until a couple of years ago, we were thinking about when Kalle from Rovanperä would be a champion? We thought we were only talking about when he would be the winner of the competition.
Maybe in 2022 there would be victories, maybe in 2023 the young Finn might, with good luck, fight for the championship for the first time. Yes, the sport requires experience, they said.
However, let’s remember how this season started. The first special tests in the opening race of the season in Monte Carlo. When the two special stages had been run, Kalle Rovanperä was the hottest leader in the World Series, more than a minute behind. Even the Rally 2 cars were swinging ahead.
Kalle is not the champion with new cars, they are not suitable for Rovanperä. You have to know how to drive them.
Such facts were immediately revealed in the port area of Monaco. The same line continued until Friday evening. Rovanperä gave the stories enough wings, as the gap to the top grew steadily and the ranking was just about locked in the World Cup points.
The date 22 January 2022 remains on the calendar.
From that morning on, Rovanperä has been a hot name in the World Series. Something happened, but what?
Changes were made to the car and the driver’s self-confidence in his own actions was restored in the blink of an eye. It felt as if rally driver Kalle Rovanperä had been reborn.
Since the World Rally Championship in Sweden at the end of February, the others have been buzzing. When Rovanperä lights up and the car sits in your hand, others have nothing to do with the speed of the Finn. And when he has a place to break the spines of his opponents, he does.
Croatia’s Power Stage victory from seemingly impossible starting points still brings emotions to the surface. Likewise, Portugal’s victory came despite the role of the plowing period.
And now Estonia. First, a little head start For Elfyn Evans, but after that total dominance. Evans, who entered this season as the strongest pre-favourite, has not been able to match the pace of his young teammate in any competition.
All this is topped off by a cool head. Sometimes there have been small mistakes, but they have not swayed Rovanperä one way or the other. It’s hard to say how big a bump the car has to be in order for Rovanperä’s expression to shake even a little.
Before Portugal, I had a conversation with a British influencer in the rally world. He asked how many races we are on site.
The conversation progressed to the Japanese competition, where I told them we would go if Rovanperä was fighting for the championship.
The British rally influencer said with a laugh that the championship had already been decided long before that race.
So this conversation took place before the start of the Portugal rally. Now we know how that race went and how it has gone on since then.
Five out of seven. The Brit was probably right.