The first place was already the fourth for Rovanpera. The Finnish team Toyota achieved a rare four-win victory in Kenya.
Micke Suopuro,
Matti Lehtisaari
15:15 • Updated 5:40 PM
You can find all the content of Sport’s World Rally Championship at .fi/mmralli.
Toyota Kalle Rovanperä has won the fourth and sixth World Championships of his career when the Finn finished first in the Safari Rally in Kenya.
Toyota drivers won first place in the race in harsh conditions. Second place Elfyn Evans, third Takamoto Katsuta and fourth Sebastien Ogier.
– Feels great. This was the most rally I have ever driven. Many thanks to the team. Everyone has done a great job. Four cars without any problems, we clearly had the best and fastest car, Rovanperä glowed.
– Midsummer is not the weekend you would like to compete in, but you can be quite happy if you can end it like this, Rovanperä continued.
Midsummer weekend conditions in Kenya were described by the fact that Hyundain ranked fifth Thierry Neuville suspended the competition once. He lost to Rovanpera in more than ten minutes.
See below how the victory of the rally was decided.
With his victory, Rovanperä further consolidated his World Championship points lead, even though he was left without additional Power Stage points for the first time this season. Rovanperä has now collected 145 World Cup points out of a possible 180 this season. The difference with Neuville, who is second in the World Series, is now 65 points.
It is possible to get a total of 30 points for winning and Power Stage number one. Rovanperä could therefore, in theory, not lose his leading position between the two World Rally Championships. There are seven competitions left through.
Team Manager Jari-Matti Latvala went almost speechless in the face of the superiority of Rovanperä and Toyota. Rovanperä, 21, may be the youngest rally world champion of all time this season.
– I have no words. He (Rovanperä) breaks all boundaries and records, Latvala admired.
Want to read more about the race? All Kenya World Rally Championship events and recent comments on the race can be found here.
Why is Kalle Rovanperä so superior at the moment? Read the analysis on this topic here.
This is a rare quadruple win
Officially, Toyota’s factory garage grabbed a double win in the race, as Katsutaa Toyota runs in his own team. For the last time, Toyota’s factory drivers have won a triple victory in the 2019 World Rally Championship in Germany.
As a car brand, the quadruple victory was Toyota’s third in its history. The last time Toyota grabbed a four-time victory in the 1993 World Rally Championship was safely from Safari. At that time, Kankkunen won, Markku Alén was another Ian Duncan third and Yasuhiro Iwase fourth.
– It tells you how rare this treat is. This is an amazing result. The drivers drove sensibly, the team has made a reliable and durable car. No more can be achieved, Latvala said.
Toyota’s roots in the World Series are precisely in endurance rallies like Safari. The car brand won merit in similar competitions in the 1980s. The team’s first four-win came from a fierce Côte d’Ivoire rally in 1986.
All in all, the World Championship Series has seen cars of the same car in the top four only 13 times. Citroen last reached the same level in the 2010 World Rally Championship in Bulgaria.
In addition to the four-time wins, the World Series has seen a five-time win. This happened in the 1990 World Rally Championship in Portugal, when the first five places went to Lancia drivers.
For these reasons, Rovanperä’s victory is special
Of the Finns, only the Safari Rally has been able to win at the World Championship level in the past Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen, Hannu Mikkola and Ari Vatanen.
Safari’s latest Finnish victory is Mäkinen’s number one position in 2001. Mäkinen, who is celebrating his birthday on Sunday, won Safari for the first time in 1996. At the end of the season, Mäkinen won the first world championship in his career.
At the beginning of the season, Mäkinen won four races in the first six rallies. Rovanperä now achieved the same performance thanks to his victory.
– I have never seen in any sport where experience plays such a big role some young athlete who makes such results. There is something really special about him: calmness and temperance, Latvala glowed with the young man.
Safari rally results
1. Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) 3.40.24.9
2. Elfyn Evans (Toyota) + 52.8
3. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) + 1.42.7
4. Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) + 2.10.3
5. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) + 10.40.9
6. Craig Breen (Ford) + 23.27.9
7. Jourdan Serderidis (Ford) + 30.16.5
8. Sebastien Loeb (Ford) + 32.12.6
9. Kajetan Kajetanowicz WRC2 (Skoda) + 35.37.6
10. Oliver Solberg (Hyundai) + 37.36.6