Kalle Rovanperä has signed a masterful start to the season. After achieving his first victory with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 in Sweden, the Finnish driver took advantage of his starting position on the asphalt of Rally Croatia to also achieve victory in the third round of the year. A starting position opening the court that played against him in Portugal, although not even that could stop Rovanperä at the time of getting his third consecutive success and closing a perfect hat trick, with a victory on each of the surfaces.
Kalle arrived at the Rally of Italy-Sardinia in the same situationwith the obligation to open the track in the first stage of the event with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. This time there was no ‘miracle’ and the World Championship leader paid for having to start the stages first, since his car was clearing the roads for his rivals to pass. As a result of this circumstance and some small problems, Rovanperä could not put the fourth consecutive victory in his locker and had to settle for a fifth place.
All in all, Kalle Rovanperä’s performance was quite positive and although he was never in contention for the podium, this fifth place knows very well since it has served to further extend its status as leader. For this reason, Kaj Lindström has highlighted the work of his pupil. It should be noted that Lindström is the technical director of the Toyota project in the WRC, but in the Rally of Italy-Sardinia he acted as team manager as a substitute for a Jari-Matti Latvala who was competing in Fuji together with Akio Toyoda, general manager of Toyota.
In this sense, Kaj Lindtrom has pointed out: «I think we have to be realistic and we have to demand Kalle Rovanperä in his fair measure. I mean, Kalle is really good, he’s talented and he’s super fast, but he’s still not a super hero that we know of. With the starting position that he had in the Rally of Italy-Sardinia, opening stages on Friday and with the type of specials that are in the test, he could not do anything but survive. There he suffers. I think he did a very good job to keep fifth position and extend the lead with Thierry Neuville.».
Photos: FIA WRC