VIDEO – When Kalle Rovanperä started rallying at 8 years old

Le Rally of New Zealand was the scene of a new episode in the history of the World Rally Championship WRC, celui du premier titre de Kalle Rovanperä. À tout juste 22 ans et 1 jour, le pilote Toyota est devenu le plus jeune champion du monde de l’histoire battant de près de 5 ans la marque détenue jusqu’ici par le regretté Colin McRae, sacré à 27 ans en 1995.

An impressive statistic but far from trivial since Kalle Rovanperä has had rallying in his blood since a young age. Already world champion at just 22 years old, and the first representative of his country to be champion since Marcus Grönholm with Peugeot in 2002, the Finn actually started motorsport very early. If the pilots of F1 also started young with karting, the current representative of Toyota Gazoo Racing started with real production cars adapted to the icy and dirt roads of Finland and at only 8 years old! As luck would have it, he even started with a Starlet, a model produced by the manufacturer he represents today.

Thus, at 8 years old, Kalle Rovanperä got behind the wheel of his Toyota Starlet adapted to its small size and explored the Finnish snow or the muddy roads of its native country with complete control. When we tell you that he is ahead of his time, it's not kidding. We are perhaps, even surely, at the dawn of the start of his reign in the WRC.

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