Rally Finland was really positive for Toyota Gazoo Racing. The structure won the victory at the hands of Elfyn Evans and secured the WRC drivers’ title, as only the Welshman or Sébastien Ogier are in a position to win the championship. Nevertheless, the event also had a couple of negatives in the form of Takamoto Katsuta and Kalle Rovanperä’s track starts. In the case of the Finn, his accident was quite strong and although at first Rovanperä returned to the competition on Sunday to compete in the Power Stage, but finally the local driver did not start in the last leg of the rally.
Favorite to victory before the start of the event, Kalle Rovanperä did not manage to be in the times of the leaders at any time. With no chance of repeating the triumph after their victories in Estonia and Greece, Rovanperä suffered a severe accident on the SS10. A frontal collision that ended up taking its toll on the Finn, as explained Jari-Matti Latvala in his capacity as head of Toyota in the WRC: «When he had the accident, he hit a sandbar. His arms were crossed on the steering wheel and the blow caused pain in his back. Although he went to the doctor and everything is fine, the muscles are sore and you did not feel comfortable driving».
Along these lines, Latvala added: “We told him to drive on Sunday so that if something happened to one of the other cars, he could secure some championship points. As things looked good, we told him that it was not necessary to drive on the Power Stage. We all agreed that Kalle was only going to pilot if necessary, since we didn’t want to put more stress on her bodyor. In two weeks there is the RACC Rally and next week we have a pre-test, so it is important that you can rest and be physically recovered by then».