Kalle Rovanperä after his victory in the Canary Islands: "Without doubt one of our best rallies"

Before talking about your success, what did you think of this ordeal?

We had a blast! The spectators surprised us with their numbers and enthusiasm. The roads proved to be excellent to drive on. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Do you agree that you delivered an incredible performance over three days?

This was undoubtedly one of our best rallies, in Jonne (Halttunen, his co-pilot. Editor's note) and myself. Today, it's not so common to be able to dominate a race so much, stage after stage. Not in the current period anyway, especially because the conditions were the same for all Rally1s. I agree that we did something special. However, I can't say if it was our greatest victory.

How did you feel during the test?

I felt completely confident with the car. My driving was efficient throughout the three days and the car proved to be perfect. The Power Stage was a good example of how we felt with a slightly wider road and smoother surface. We could be so fast on it! It's not often that we compete on asphalt of this type and I really enjoyed it, unlike what we do on dirtier rounds that I like less. The Canary Islands are one of my favorite events on this surface. Here, the key was to have good pace notes. When the conditions are the same for all the competitors, it's all about the driving.

Your team seemed to have prepared very well for this meeting...

Indeed, our Rally1s were very fast for four days. The pace behind the wheel was incredible. This is definitely positive for the team.

You are now back at 2^e championship rank, 43 points behind Elfyn Evans. The title race is far from over!

There are still a lot of races to go, but we need these kinds of results if we want to move up, because the gap to Elfyn is significant. We had to turn things around. I'm happy to have done it on this trip where we all had an equal chance at the start.

Did you have any doubts after three complicated races?

Not really. When you're a driver, you know where the problems come from and you don't start thinking that you can't drive anymore. We knew we had to find something and I focused on making it work. I was convinced that if the Toyota was performing well, we would be too... but this round went even better than expected.

Did your experience on the track help you?

Very difficult to say. You can't really compare the two disciplines. With a car rally, we are almost always on narrow roads that have nothing in common with a track. I tried to think about it and I found some differences… but actually I don't really care since it worked. (Laughs)

The next meeting will be in Portugal (May 15-18). How will you approach it?

It's good to be back on Earth. If I'm not mistaken, we'll have an evolution of the tires for this surface, so we'll have to make the most of them. We haven't tested them yet, so I don't know how it will turn out. What's certain is that we'll start to do the same thing as here.

Comments collected by L. Rocci

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