According to Ott Tänak, the Toyota drivers slept at the beginning of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship, but the Estonian gave Kalle Rovanperä a clean slate. According to Toyota’s team manager Jari-Matti Latvala, behind the Estonian top speed is a changed driving style.
Estonian Ott Tänak is ruining the Finns’ rally celebrations at the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship before the final day. Tänak, driving a Hyundai, leads the race by 8.4 seconds Kalle Rovaperää.
So Tänak is trying to do the same thing that Kalle Rovanperä did in the previous World Cup rally in Estonia, that is to celebrate in the homeland of a fierce competitor.
Tänak also has a chance to spoil the impressive streak of the Toyota team based in Central Finland. When Toyota entered the World Series in 2017, the team’s driver has won every time since then in Jyväskylä.
As of Thursday, the situation could not be seen. Tänak gave comments about his car below and was about to hand Toyota the win.
– I do not know. The guys from Toyota must have slept, Tänak said and threw a thorn at the rally pride of Central Finland.
The Toyota drivers are in positions 2, 3 and 4, as Esapekka Lappi and Elfyn Evans are right behind Rovanperä on the results list.
– Now the Toyotas have woken up and are coming really hard. In the early stages of the rally, I went all out. Maybe they went at a slightly safer pace. They lost in the beginning. It’s always hard to work hard in Finland.
However, Tänak gave Kalle Rovanperä a clean slate because Rovanperä drove on the first Friday and suffered from loose gravel on the route.
– Of course, Kalle was on the road early on Friday. He had a hard time as a ploughman. I think Kalle did a wonderful job in that, Tänak said.
However, Tänak could not say that he was still sure of his victory. On the other hand, he did not agree to be worried about the challenge posed by Rovanperä either.
– There is nothing to be sure of. You have to push it to the limit. Kalle and Toyota are really strong, Tänak stated.
During the dominoes today, there was also a lot of talk about the possibility of a media game in the Estonian’s comments. However, the Estonian has won the Jyväskylä World Rally twice at the wheel of Toyota in 2018 and 2019.
– I felt that they were fooling around with the shakedown when they claimed to have given up the whole thing. It was apparently just a show, Lappi commented to Urheilu on Friday evening.
During Saturday night’s maintenance, Tänak also pulled the plug when the Finnish media tried to ask for a counter-comment to the Finnish drivers’ claims about the media game. Tänak finally got rid of the fact that he was also playing a media game in Estonia when he lost to Kalle Rovanperä in two minutes.
Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala according to him, Hyundai’s car is certainly better than in Estonia, but he also saw a significant change in Tänak’s driving in Central Finland.
– You can see that Ott drives really aggressively and sideways. Normally, he doesn’t drive like that. Yes, you can see that the car is having trouble driving. In Finland, Ott succeeds with that style better than in Estonia, Latvala stated.
And does Rovanperä have a chance against Tänak on Sunday? Both of them know Sunday’s closing stages Oittila and Ruuhimäki really well.
– First we have to see how the opening in the morning goes. It’s hard to make distinctions in Ruuhimäki, but you can in Oittila. However, Ott knows the tricks, Rovanperä formulated.
shows all the special stages of the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship live in Areena and in the app. Ralliradio is also roaring as usual. You can find all rally content at EPN.fi/mmralli.