Kalle Rovanperä didn’t risk his World Championship points on the final day, but he still managed five additional World Championship points.
14:25•Updated 17:40
Estonian Ott Tänak has won the World Rally Championship in Jyväskylä. On Friday, the Huyndai driver, who had time to escape, managed to keep the Toyota driving Kalle Rovanperän behind him in the end by 6.8 seconds. Esapekka Lappi was third in the competition.
– This is the most special victory for me out of these three. At Toyota, everyone expected a win here, but now winning against Toyota is special. In fact, I have to say that this is one of the best victories of my entire career, Tänak said.
From Rovanperä’s point of view, Friday’s special tests turned out to be decisive, when the Finn, who leads the World Series, suffered from his first starting place. On the first actual day of driving, Tänak ran away to less than 20 seconds when Rovanperä had to plow loose gravel from the route.
On Saturday, Rovanperä drove six bottom times out of eight and narrowed the gap to 8.4 seconds when the starting order was reversed, but there was almost nothing left to do in the last four special stages on Sunday.
After Sunday’s first special test, Rovanperä admitted that because of the world championship fight, it was no longer worth taking stupid risks. At the end of the day, Rovanperä, who was playfully named as the “marketing manager” of the rally, drove the fastest time on the Power Stage and five additional World Championship points.
– However, this left a pretty good feeling. When you have a winner’s mind, it’s always disappointing to come second. Lost those mandatory seconds on Friday. However, the points lead increased again, so it’s not a bad thing, Rovanperä stated.
Having won five of the eight races of the season, Rovanperä leads the World Rally Championship after Jyväskylä with a difference of 94 points. This means that, in theory, the Finn can secure the 2022 world championship in just two weeks in Belgium.
The possibility is, of course, very theoretical – it would require Rovanpera to have the maximum pot and the nearest threats to be interrupted or at least lose a lot of points. Tänak, who has suspended twice this season, is the closest to Rovanperä in the championship fight, after rising to second place in the points by Thierry Neuvillewho finished fifth in Jyväskylä.
There are still five races left in the World Rally Championship this season. The season continues in Belgium on August 18.
In Lapland, a special rock episode and a last-minute rush
Esapekka Lappi was firmly in the fight for victory, until an incredible misfortune afflicted the most recent Finnish winner of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship. Lappi, who drove in second place, was coming to the finish line of the 15th special stage, when a stone chunk that was detached from the road by the Finnish Toyota’s tire bounced off the bushes and bushes like a boomerang back into the Finn’s windshield.
Lappi was able to drive “half-blind” on Saturday’s last three special tests, but his dreams of victory were allowed to remain. He started the final day of the race solidly in third place and started to drive to the podium without any risks.
In spite of this, the last one was still beaten in the previous special test.
Lapland’s driving line went too far on the side of the ditch, which caused the car to spin and go around three times through the roof. However, the car landed on its wheels, and in the end Lappi was only 20 seconds short of the base time of the special test.
Lappi and his co-driver Janne Ferm were able to fix the leaking radiator by switching, kicked off the broken windshield and were able to wear the goggles on their face and finish in third place before Elfyn Evans.
– The roof of the car stayed in place when we removed the windshield. But when I hit Vitos in the eye in Ruuhimäki, that’s when it creaked and the whole roof came off, the antennas with it.
– Air to come in briskly. Janne (Ferm) had to shout notes when I didn’t want to hear anything, Lappi recounted colorful events.
In the WRC2 class, the battle for victory in Jyväskylä was fought by Finnish drivers Teemu Suninen and by Emil Lindholm between. Hyundai driver Suninen finally took first place with a 7.7 second difference from Lindholm driving Skoda. Estonia took the third place in the class Egon Kaur.
Huttunen’s dream debut turned into a nightmare
If Lapland was unlucky in Jyväskylä, it can be Ford with its debut in the main class Jari Huttunen to describe the weekend as a complete nightmare. Huttunen had finally secured a place in the main class of the rally and expectations were high.
Huttunen, who collected a six-figure sum with his support crew, participated in Jyväskylä in a rented Rally1 class Ford Puma, which, however, suffered from major technical problems throughout the weekend.
The problems already started on Friday, when Ford’s fuel pump broke down in the eighth special stage and Huttunen was left in the lead for more than five minutes. After that, Huttunen had hopes of making up for the disappointment by forging hard special test times and thereby giving displays, but when the car’s power steering broke down on both Saturday and Sunday, Huttunen was faced with the impossible.
Belonging to Huttunen’s background group Marcus Grönholm already told me over the weekend that technical problems had not been taken into account in the car insurance. Discussions about possible compensation with M-sport, who rented the car, have not yet taken place.
Among the unlucky drivers from Jyväskylä, I also remember a young Swedish driver Oliver Solberg, whose difficult season continued in a dramatic way in Jyväskylä. Solberg drove his car onto its roof right at the first corner of Friday’s first special stage.
The public rush caused mild symptoms
Due to Kalle Rovanperä’s rally success and the removal of the corona restrictions for a couple of years, the Jyväskylä World Rally had caused people to arrive in droves to watch the race on the spot. Already on Thursday, Harju’s special test set an audience record, when there were 19,500 spectators.
The public rush also caused mild symptoms. The crowd’s disobedience became the rally’s big talking point on the first actual driving day. The special exam in Lankamaa had to be canceled in the afternoon for safety reasons.
In several places along the route, there were people who were told to move to safer spectator seats, but the instructions were not respected. After the order, the instructions were followed for a while, but as the cars approached, the spectators moved closer again.
Cancellation of a special exam is very rare. The last time a special stage was canceled due to bad public behavior was at the Finnish World Rally Championship in 1986.
1. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) 2.24.04.6
2. Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) + 6.8
3. Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) + 1.20,7
4. Elfyn Evans (Toyota) + 1.37,6
5. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) + 2.18.0
6. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) + 3.09,0
7. Gus Greensmith (Ford) + 3.57,0
8. Teemu Suninen (Hyundai) + 9.31,3
9. Emil Lindholm (Skoda) + 9.39,0
10. Jari Huttunen (Ford) + 10.31.6
1. Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) 198
2. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) 104
3. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) 103
4. Elfyn Evans (Toyota) 94
5. Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) 81