Kalle Rovanperä dominated the Estonian rally and soared in the championship standings at the end of this 8th event out of 13 in the WRC world rally championship which ended on Sunday. At the wheel of his Toyota, the 22-year-old Finn, reigning world champion, crushed his opponents, winning all the special stages in the last two days and finishing almost a minute ahead of Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
In the championship, he now has a 55-point lead over his British Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans, 4th in Estonia, and 58 over Neuville. “For the championship, it’s an important event to earn points and that was the plan” applied, said Rovanperä after his victory. “It’s my favorite rally of the year and I knew we should go fast and it went well,” he added.
He paid tribute to his illustrious compatriot Markku Alén by repeating one of his sayings, “if I want to go fast, I go fast” as the next event will take place at his home in Finland in a fortnight.
In the absence of Frenchman Sébastien Ogier who had beaten him in Kenya in June, Rovanperä did not have an opponent to match. Ogier, eight-time WRC world champion, has only completed a few rallies this season for Toyota but has already won three (Monte Carlo, Mexico and Kenya). Absent in Estonia, he will still be in Finland. He will be “replaced” there by the boss himself of the Japanese rally team, Jari-Marri Latvala, 38, who won the Nordic rally three times (2010, 2014 and 2015) and will try again to shine in front of his compatriots.
Ott Tänak, world champion in 2019, was racing at home in Estonia with his M-Sport / Ford but saw all his chances of victory obliterated even before the start because he had to change engines on Thursday morning, receiving a 5-minute penalty. He finished 8th and last of the cars in the WRC1 category, but retained his 4th place in the provisional classification of the world championship. “It’s a shame we couldn’t fight Ott this weekend. But I’m sure he will be quick in Finland,” assured Rovanperä.
Behind the flying Finn, the positions were quickly fixed between Thierry Neuville and his Hyundai teammate Esapekka Lappi, also a Finn. The Belgian enjoys the status of first driver at Hyundai and Lappi did not attack him, contenting himself with securing his 3rd place against Evans (Toyota) whom he finally beat by some 6 seconds. Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet (M-Sport / Ford) finished 6th and remains 9th in the provisional classification of the world championship.