Rovanperä: “We can be proud of what we have accomplished”

Nous avions perdu l’habitude de ne pas voir Kalle Rovanperä sur la plus haute marche du podium. Le pilote Toyota n’a pas pu accomplir un de ses rêves : remporter son rally at home in Finland. For a long time fighting with Ott Tänak, the championship leader finally lost, handicapped by the few seconds of delay taken on Friday. “It was a good weekend, declared the young 21-year-old driver at the finish of the Power Stage. I would have liked to win obviously, but when you look at the weekend as a whole, I think we did a good job. We left first on Friday and we had to open the road, after that we had to fight to get back. It was still tight. »

💬 K.Rovanpera: “We can be proud of what we have accomplished”

🎤 The reaction of Finnish driver Kalle Rovanpera, winner of this 22nd special.

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- CANAL + Sport (@CanalplusSport) August 7

Driven by a public dedicated to his cause, Kalle Rovanperä is therefore not (yet) the successor to Esapekka Lappi, the last Finn to win at home in 2017. But thanks to his second place (his 6th podium in 8 races), he could be the next successor to Marcus Grönholm, the last Finnish WRC world champion in 2002. “I think we can be proud of what we have accomplished. The team did a good job again, the car worked well. We improved over the weekend. A big thank you to all the fans. Their support was incredible. Even though I didn't win, I really enjoyed this weekend. »

First match point in Belgium for Rovanperä

At the end of this 8th event of the season, Kalle Rovanperä is ever closer to the title. Now 94 points ahead of Ott Tänak, the Finn could even already be titled in Belgium (August 18-21). For this, very favorable circumstances will be required: Rovanperä will have to score at least 26 points more than Tänak, 25 points more than Neuville and 16 points more than Evans to be crowned at Ypres. But we have seen it several times: impossible has not been Rovanperä since the start of the season.

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