Kalle Rovanperä: “The grip just disappeared”

Many intended to scrutinize the performance of Kalle Rovanperä in Croatia, the young Finn finding himself in the position of leader of the championship, and in that of opener of the road on the asphalt of this new event of the WRC 2021.

The adventure, however, only lasted a few kilometers, the nugget of Toyota Gazoo Racing going off the road in the first special yesterday morning. A spectacular accident but fortunately not serious for the Rovanperä – Halttunen duo.

However, this is not the case for the Yaris WRC, way too damaged in his caper in the trees to be able to leave this Saturday.

“The first stage was really tricky and really slippery for everyone and I had some understeer, explains Rovanperä. Towards the end of the SS, on the last downhill section, I was still trying to push a little.

In this fast right turn, it was particularly slippery: the grip just disappeared, I had a little too much speed and we went off the road, resulting in a big accident. The good thing is that me and Jonne are fine. I'm really sorry for the team. It was my mistake and I must learn from it for the future. »

An area where Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia also almost made a mistake, escaping with only a crazy tire, proof of the difficulty in understanding the grip of these new roads.

Toyota, however, remains in a good position to aim for a result in Croatia, with Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans in 2nd and 3rd position behind Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) avant le départ de la deuxième étape, qui sera à suivre en direct tout au long de la journée on our website.