Kalle wins Rally Finland at last!
Report by James Downie for RMUK, images courtesy of AF Motorsport Media
Kalle Rovanpera took his place among the Finnish rally immortals at the weekend when at long last he won his home round of the WRC. The two time world champion is of course highly successful and respected in the sport but no Finn ever feels like they’ve truly made it to the highest pinnacle of rallying until they’ve joined Alen, Mikkola, Makinen, Vatanen, Kankkunen, Gronholm and the rest in ticking this one off… Unbelievably, this was the first home win for Finland since Esapekka Lappi’s triumph in 2017.
The 24 year old from Jyvaskyla headed home a clean sweep of the first 5 places for the Toyota Gazoo team, with a surprise second place for Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta. By contrast, the weekend could hardly have gone much worse for rivals Hyundai, and in particular championship leader Ott Tanak.
Kalle Rovanpera became the first First Flying Finn to win Rally Finland since 2017
Toyota entered 5 Rally1 Yaris’s for Rovanpera, Katsuta, Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Sami Pajari, whilst Oliver Solberg reverted to the Rally2 version in spite of his sensational win in Estonia. Hyundai entered three i20’s for Tanak, Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux, whilst M-Sport brought three Pumas for Greg Munster, Josh McErlean and Martin Sesks respectively.
The talk before the start was of the speed of the stages, with world champion Neuville suggesting that it was now all about keeping the right foot planted and hoping that the car stuck to the road, whilst the return of 40 year old Finnish legend and Toyota Gazoo boss Jari-Matti Latvala to the drivers’ seat in another Yaris, added some extra flavour to the WRC2 battle.
After a shortened version of Ruuhimaki played host for the shakedown, the competition started on Thursday evening with the traditional short Harju stage in Jyväskylä. Three-time rally Finland winner Ott Tanak made it clear that he meant business with fastest time from Neuville. Ogier was quickest Toyota and tucked into 3rd overnight.
The serious business began on Friday though, with 115km of those legendary high-speed sweeping “yump” laden Finnish forest roads split into 8 stages, with another run at Harju to end the day. As usual on WRC gravel events, road position was key, and having taken the championship lead in Estonia, Tanak now had the disadvantage of being “road sweeper” for the following cars.
First up was Laukaa, and the struggles of opening the road were already obvious. Tanak was only 8th fastest, with longtime championship leader Elfyn Evans 7th. Evans has had to open the road on all the previous gravel rounds, which has been very damaging to his title ambitions. But his Toyota teammates with better road positions were on fire here…Rovanpera and Katsuta blasted into a joint lead whilst young Sami Pajari went 1 10th quicker to claim a maiden WRC stage win. Katsuta and Pajari were the drivers who perhaps felt the heat of unfavourable comparisons the most from Solberg’s brilliant Estonian win, so it was important for them to show some pace. Neuville was the best Hyundai in 3rd with Sesks 9th and best M-Sport car at this stage.
Sami Pajari took his first ever WRC stage wins
Latvala showed he still had it with best WRC2 time on Laukaa, with Solberg only 4th, and freely admitting he was struggling to adjust back to the rally2 car.
Kalle took the lead with fastest time on the next one. Finally finding the right rhythm and set up on gravel after his miserable outing in Estonia, he seemed back to the majestic, untouchable Kalle that won back-to-back titles, and his lead grew steadily. Rocketing up the order after a superb time on this stage was Fourmaux, who went from 6th to 2nd…
Two classic stages, Myhinpaa and Ruuhimaki completed the morning loop. Rovanpera and Pajari set fastest times with Kalle leading overall from Fourmaux, Pajari and Taka going into the afternoon. It had been a tough morning as expected for some. Road conditions and other minor issues meant the likes of Neuville, Evans, Ogier, Tanak were unable to challenge the leaders and were already reduced to scrapping for whatever championship points they could salvage from the weekend… M-Sport’s trio of talented but inexperienced youngsters were 9th,10th and 11th.
With rain around, and some surfaces rutting up after the first use… there was potential for a few “moments” in the afternoon. Katsuta took fastest time on the next stage, and leapfrogged Pajari and Fourmaux into 2nd and Neuville also climbed a couple of places, but the pattern of the rally was set. Rovanpera was able to comfortably maintain his, albeit narrow, lead whilst Evans, Ogier and Tanak continued to grapple with road position. In fact, Tanak’s rally was about to get worse on SS7 – in heavy rain the Hyundai hit a tree. Although he was able to keep going, there was enough damage to the cooling system to force him to back off considerably on the next couple of stages and he would end the day a distant 10th overall.
The rain also caused Latvala to lose the WRC2 lead to fellow Finn Emil Lindholm. Misted windows reduced his visibility to zero and he had to back off, allowing Lindholm through. Meanwhile Solberg returned to earth with a bang – literally. The Monster backed Rally2 Yaris bottomed out on the ruts of SS7 and slid off the road and rolled. An unfortunate off for sure, and one which badly damages Oliver’s chances of taking the WRC2 crown this year. Lindholm’s lead wouldn’t last long though, and a puncture dropped him and Reeta Hamalainen well down the field. The new leader in WRC2 was local man Roope Korhonen.
With fastest times in the wet, the Hyundai duo of Fourmaux and Neuville were able to move up into 2nd and 3rd positions by the end of Friday. Excellent drives by the Frenchman and the Belgian in conditions that did not really favour them. All the top drivers reported scares and near misses in the afternoon conditions, but most got through without significant problems.
Positions at the end of leg one:
1 Rovanpera/Halttunen
2 Neuville/Wydaeghe +4.9 seconds
3 Fourmaux/Coria +7.7
4 Katsuta/Johnston +8.1
5 Pajari/Salminen +15.7
6 Ogier/Landais +17.6
7 Evans/Martin +26.0
8 Sesks/Francis +40.5
9 McErlean/Treacy +1.06.0
10 Tanak/Jarveoja +1.07.2
Adrien Fourmaux drove superbly in Finland, but his luck was out…
Before Saturday even got started there was drama. It emerged overnight that Tanak’s troubled rally had been dealt another major blow when the FIA stewards handed him a 5-minute penalty. It was in relation to an incident involving a scrutineer in the tyre check zone at the end of the stage where he’d hit the tee. Whatever the whys or wherefores, the facts were that the penalty dropped Tanak to 24th overall and destroyed any remaining chance of a decent result.
The second leg itself offered 8 stages in two loops of 4 and more wet weather ensured that conditions would remain slippery. Rovanpera immediately began stamping his authority further, ensuring that any notions that the chasing pack may have had of catching him were snuffed out with fastest times on three of the four morning stages. His lead over Neuville stretched to 15 seconds, in spite of a puncture on SS12, with Fourmaux holding onto third from Katsuta and Pajari. The latter now coming under sustained pressure from Ogier. Korhonen continued to lead WRC2 with Latvala charging back up the field to second.
Stage 16, the second pass of the 19km Vastiia effectively ended Hyundai’s challenge. Both Neuville and Fourmaux sustained punctures at the same location, and both lost close to 2 minutes, dropping them down the order to 6th and 7th. This left Toyotas in the leading 5 positions with Katsuta now second, but the chief beneficiaries were Ogier, who suddenly found himself third from an overnight 6th, and Evans who went from 7th to 4th and suddenly scented a chance of a decent championship points haul with Tanak out of contention. Dropping back was a disappointed Pajari, who just couldn’t find an answer to the increased pace of his more experienced teammates through the afternoon stages. Also in the wars was Sesks with a misted windscreen. It was a problem which affected all three Pumas, but the Latvian lost two minutes and dropped behind his teammates to 10th.
Positions at end of leg 2:
Rovanpera/Halttunen 2:01.28.8
Katsuta/Johnston +36.1
Ogier/Landais +42.9
Evans/Martin +44.4
Pajari/Salminen +59.2
Neuville/Wydaeghe +1.54.7
Fourmaux/Coria +2.23.7
McErlean/Treacy +3.28.3
Munster +4.27.9
Sesks/Francis +4.38.7
Elfyn Evans and Seb Ogier were never separated by much in Finland…
Sunday consisted of just 2 stages, but it was two runs at the classic 24km of Ouninpohja, the latter of which was also the Wolf Power stage.
Evans continued his charge and set fastest time on the first run, but not by enough to displace Ogier. In fact, less than 2 seconds covered the fastest 4 crews and there was little change to the overall leaderboard. The only movement was Tanak storming back up to 11th overall but as usual on the final day, there was the feeling that everyone was saving themselves for main course…
Into the stage first was Tanak. With power stage points being his last hope of taking anything away from a dismal weekend, he gave it everything but pushed too hard. A huge spin meant he got nothing from the stage, but then teammate Fourmaux stopped and retired with another puncture, promoting Tanak to 10th and a single point. Neuville took 4th fastest time ahead of Evans, with Ogier 3rd, Katsuta 2nd and Kalle taking the stage and maximum super Sunday points and in the process completing a dominant win.
Taka takes to the air on his way to an excellent 2nd place
In WRC2 Korhonen just about held off Latvala to take his maiden success at this level.
It was only the second time in WRC history that one team had taken the first 5 places on a rally, and what a contrast to the absolute horrorshow that Hyundai endured. Evans retakes the lead in the driver’s championship by three points from Kalle, with Ogier and Tanak tied a further 10 points back.
With a winners’ average speed of 129.95 kmh this was the fastest rally in WRC history and it cannot be stressed enough just what a statement win this was by Kalle Rovanpera. Finally laying the Rally Finland ghost to rest was one thing, and a maximum 35 point yield was another, but in terms of the season, he has solved his gravel problems just in the nick of time. There are five rounds to go and three are on gravel, with two on Asphalt, and last time out on the latter surface he took an even more dominant win. Everyone else had better beware: the real Kalle is back, and he is now a potential winner of every remaining round.
Final Results
1 Rovanpera/Halttunen 2h11m46.5s
2 Katsuta/Johnston +37.2s
3 Ogier/Landais +45.1
4 Evans/Martin +48.1
5 Pajari/Salminen +1.18.8
6 Neuville/Wydaeghe +2.01.5
7 McErlean/Treacy +4.07.4
8 Sesks/Francis +5.17.2
9 Munster/Louka +5.24.9
10 Tanak/Jarveoja +7.38.4
11 Korhonen/Viinikka WRC2 winner
Super Sunday Results
1 Rovanpera
2 Ogier
3 Katsuta
4 Evans
5 Tanak
= Neuville
Drivers Championship Standings
1 Evans 176
2 Rovanpera 173
3 Ogier 163
=Tanak 163
5 Neuville 125
Manufacturers Championship Standings
1 Toyota Gazoo 458
2 Hyundai 371
3 M-Sport 129
