Kalle Rovanperä dazzled with the closing clip of the World Rally Championship in Croatia. The Finn got up from the back by taking over Ott Tänak, even though the Estonian’s choice of tires was better. Watch the whole special exam through the eyes of Rovanperä in this video.
Video clips, broadcast information and podcasts – You can find all the World Rally Championship content at Sport at .fi/mmralli.
Toyota Kalle Rovanperän the astonishing last special stage at the World Rally Championship in Croatia was definitely the most memorable performance of the colorful race. With it, he rose more than a second behind to victory over Estonia and Hyundai Ott from Today.
There are many really interesting details along the way for the special exam. The Rovanperä front-wheel drive group had to make numerous remarks on the Finnish driver’s notes when the heavy rain made the beginning of the high-speed run very muddy.
Kartturi Jonne Halttunen indeed, he mentioned the word “mud” a total of 64 times during the special experiment.
Tire choices increased the value of performance
Despite the precise notes, Rovanpera was required to keep an eye on what was really ahead. Mikko Hirvonen After a group of front cars led by the company, the special test had dried for about a couple of hours.
Rovanperä’s tire selection did not go to the button on Sunday. He had four hard mix asphalt tires on the run day run that work best on dry asphalt.
Even today, the choice was four soft alloy tires that gave him an advantage over Rovanpera in wet conditions. They both grabbed two raincoat rings for the run.
These tires also saved the Rovanperä race. Thanks to them, the Finn did not lose more than half a minute to Tänak in the rain of the last special stage. Without the rain tires, the difference could have been much larger.
Rovanpera benefited from the same raincoat tires on the muddy sections of the final special stage.
One slip illustrated the number of attempts – the notes were really accurate
Rovanpera was required to stretch tremendously all the way to the end of the hurry. From the indoor camera image, you can see how a Finn uses the whole road. At about six and a half minutes, the video shows Rovanperä’s car slipping off the road in muddy braking.
Watch the full final exam through the eyes of Rovanperä in the video in the main picture of this story.
At the end of the special test, the note “dry” from the front car group can be heard several times on the notes read by Halttunen. That’s how Rovanperä knew when he could make the most of the improved grip – without fear of dirty braking.
Rovanperä had also noticed the last bend of the whole rally in his notes with the notation “important”. The same bend had solved the whole race a year earlier Sebastien Ogierin in favor of Elfyn Evans suffocated in place.
Rovanperä cleared the place cleanly and drove to the finish line in top time. Kartturi Halttunen said words to Rovanpera even before crossing the finish line, which aptly described the entire performance.
– At least we were all done, Halttunen said.
– Yeah, there’s nothing else, Rovanperä replied.
No change was needed, as the duo ended up being 5.7 seconds faster than the Estonian pair and won the entire race by 4.3 seconds.
The watch told me about the changed circumstances
The changed circumstances were well illustrated by the fact that in the morning Thierry Neuvillen made the base time for the same special stage was 8.25.8. The bottom time on the Rovanperä Power Stage was 9.01.8, which is more than half a minute slower.
Elfyn Evans and Craig Breen less than a minute from Neuville’s morning time and more than 20 seconds from Rovanpera.
A year earlier, Ogier drove 8.14.0 in the same special stage in a WRC car, ten seconds faster than Neuville. However, it must be remembered that at that time the Croatian World Rally Championship was run in dry conditions.