Kalle Rovanperä: “this will be a new situation for me”

Prophet in his country. History will remember that Kalle Rovanperä led a world rally championship for the first time in 2021 following the Arctic Rally held at home in Finland.

Certainly, the stage local did not win the event and never worried the winner Ott Tanak. But the pilot Toyota termine deuxième en décrochant les cinq points de la Power Stage aux côtés de Jonne Halttunen. «Le WRC "has never been far north and we have never been so close to first place," summarizes the co-pilot. But it wasn’t our time yet I guess!

If we open the focus, there are many good things to take away from this event. We won stages, we were consistent in first position, we gleaned points in the power stage and important points for the manufacturer as well. But perhaps the most important thing is that we are leading the world championship for the very first time!”

Rovanperä is the youngest driver to have this honor in history. More than enough for his happiness. “I’m really happy with second place. It was quite a difficult weekend, I was pushing very hard and we couldn't always be on the optimal pace, but we were fighting all the time.

It's really nice to be in this position now, leading the championship for the first time. It will be a new situation for me to go to the next test in this role. We just have to keep the pace and be consistent like we have been here.”

If the Finn can be happy, Toyota had a mixed weekend with the only small point collected by Sébastien Ogier and fifth place for Elfyn Evans. “We are still at the top of both championships so we can be satisfied,” analyzes team principal Jari-Matti Latvala.

But of course we wanted more. It was a rally at home for the team and we were hoping we could win here. We seemed to struggle a bit with the setup, so the drivers weren't quite happy with the car all the time. We were fast on some stages, but there were stages where we were not so competitive and we need to analyze why,” he concludes.

They will have almost two months to debrief everything, because the next round will take place from April 22 to 25 in Croatia.