How Rovanpera grabbed the Rally Sweden spotlight after the Loeb vs Ogier show

If there were any lingering concerns that a World Rally Championship without Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier would lack any sparkle, then a pulsating Swedish event firmly put those doubts to bed. The WRC’s new hybrid era kicked off with a blockbuster on the Monte Carlo Rally, thanks to Loeb versus Ogier providing a hard act for the championship’s new guard to follow on what would be the first round since Rally GB 2006 without at least one of the Sebastiens.

But follow it did. Kalle Rovanpera emerged from a thrilling battle for Rally Sweden, which at its mid-point included a top four split by 3.2s, to claim a third career win. The Finn once again highlighted his case to become the WRC’s new-generation poster boy. He was in his element on the Swedish snow to win six of the 17 stages and produce a masterclass that had shades of Loeb and Ogier, given the 21-year-old Toyota star was victorious despite opening the road. It’s a trick that the semi-retired greats have become world leaders at pulling off.

There was a buzz surrounding the WRC’s return to one of rallying’s heartlands after a COVID-19-induced layoff last year. A move of venue to Umea – 800km north of the rally’s spiritual home in Karlstad – to guarantee snow-covered roads paid off, even if two stages were cancelled due to a herd of immovable reindeer. That aside, a new two-year agreement was signed for Umea and Sweden to remain on the calendar, which suggests the event ticked all the boxes. Umea embraced the rally, and there is no doubt that the Swedes’ love of rallying remains strong, boosted by home-grown talent in the form of Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg, son of 2003 world champion Petter. Such is the popularity that his family has its own reality television show in Sweden.

Much of the pre-event talk surrounded the high speeds that drivers could muster on these new stages, which featured longer straights than previous editions. Given the unusual stage characteristics, there were suggestions that hybrid power wouldn’t prove such a valuable commodity, although the new hybrid kits would create headlines for other reasons.

Home hero Oliver Solberg drew the biggest attention at Rally Sweden's new home Umea

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In the Hyundai camp, the focus was simply on finishing the rally after its Monte Carlo reliability horror show in January. Even so, there was an air of optimism that the South Korean marque could deliver a surprise, and so it did on the first stage when Ott Tanak chalked up a maiden stage win of the year to lead the rally, pipping road sweeper Rovanpera. It was a lead short-lived – Friday’s leaderboard shuffled its order almost as quickly as the cars navigated the stages.

On his WRC return with Toyota, Esapekka Lappi quickly readjusted to the top tier by taking the GR Yaris he is alternating with Ogier this year to a stage win on the second test, grabbing the lead in the process. “It was really nice to get that stage win already this morning, this was giving us some extra boost for the day,” he said.

"There is a rule in place that when you trigger the red light the car has to go into quarantine, so Compact Dynamics [hybrid units suppliers] and the FIA make sure the car is safe before we actually touch it. This is a new process and unfortunately we are the first one to test it" Hyundai deputy team director Julien Moncet

It wasn’t long before the rally lost one of its contenders – M-Sport’s Craig Breen – on the next stage, the longest of the event at 27.8km. The Irishman was lucky to recover from a spin after clouting a snowbank, before then firing off the road at high speed, burying his Ford Puma in the deep snow. The incident triggered a red flag, although this was due to Breen’s co-driver Paul Nagle incorrectly hitting the SOS button when notifying officials of the incident, according to the stewards, who fined the pair €2000. Breen admitted that impaired visibility had contributed to the off. "Every time I braked after that [first spin] the washer was spraying water onto the screen to the point where it would freeze," he recounted. "Later on in a fast section, I got caught out by not being able to see properly, and put off by everything, and we got properly stuck in a snowbank, so disaster."

By midday service Rovanpera, despite the challenges of opening the road, had moved into the lead, winning the final stage of the loop to open up an 8.4s lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. Previous leader Lappi dropped from the lead to sixth, behind the fast-starting Solberg, Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Tanak.

Craig Breen paid for feeling the full force of Rally Sweden's snowbanks

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The sequence of changing rally leaders continued. Step forward Evans, who made the best of a messy rutted road to become the fourth leader in four stages as crews completed a second pass of the morning runs. Rovanpera bore the brunt of the poor conditions, dropping from the lead to fourth. “There is no line at all,” muttered Rovanpera. “I tried to follow the line and I tried to make my own line but it doesn't work at all.”

Evans maintained the lead through the fifth stage, but only just – Tanak closed to 1.1s adrift despite losing hybrid power in the final 10km. That issue would bite hard when a red warning light appeared on his hybrid unit – under FIA regulations the team was forced to retire the car on safety grounds, despite his i20 N still being operational using its internal combustion engine. “It’s definitely not meant for rallying, this [hybrid] box we are carrying,” said a frustrated Tanak. Hyundai deputy team director Julien Moncet added: “There is a rule in place that when you trigger the red light the car has to go into quarantine, so Compact Dynamics [hybrid units suppliers] and the FIA make sure the car is safe before we actually touch it. This is a new process and unfortunately we are the first one to test it.”

While a cruel blow hobbled Tanak, team-mate Neuville ended Friday in the lead, a feat he could scarcely believe after the team’s disastrous start to the year in Monte Carlo. “We couldn’t expect when we came here that we could be in the lead on the first day,” he smiled. The Belgian made the most of his preserved tyres to jump from fifth to a 4.3s lead over Rovanpera over the day’s final two stages held in darkness, while Evans, fighting worn rubber, dropped to third. Incredibly, 8.8s separated Neuville, Rovanpera, Evans and Lappi, while Solberg, who had gambled with his tyres, fell away from the pack.

Takamoto Katsuta ended the day seventh after a run-in with a snowbank that required spectators to push his Toyota back on the road. The M-Sport Ford pair of Adrien Fourmaux, keen to just finish the event, and Gus Greensmith, who suffered gearbox and hybrid issues plus a close call with a snowbank, held seventh and eighth, a far cry from the team’s Monte Carlo heroics.

Saturday was where the rally’s complexion changed when the relentless four-way victory tussle turned into a two-horse race between Toyota pair Rovanpera and Evans. Rovanpera instigated a fifth change of lead on the day’s first stage, overhauling Neuville’s overnight advantage when the Hyundai driver couldn’t find the required grip.

Elfyn Evans took the fight to Toyota team-mate Kale Rovanpera but would come unstuck on Saturday's final stage

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By midday service, Neuville had dropped to fourth, a malaise deepened by overshooting a junction on stage 11, while Rovanpera led Evans and Lappi for a Toyota 1-2-3, the quartet split by a mere 15s. As darkness fell, Rovanpera came into his own, blitzing the final two stages with a pair of mesmerising drives to halt a brief Evans fightback.

It was the evening’s final stage that would be the start of Evans’s downfall. The Welshman came into the test’s final corner too hot and was sucked into a snowbank. He responded by flooring the throttle, creating a wild leap over a snowbank to cut the time beam in one of the WRC’s most bizarre stage finishes.

While the manoeuvre looked like a stunt out of a Hollywood movie, Evans would face the wrath of the stewards, who delayed his plans for an early night by asking him to attend a hearing. It was deemed that he had gained an advantage and had breached the rules by using a non-defined route to reach the stop control line after the finish, resulting in a 10s penalty. An 8.3s deficit to rally leader Rovanpera turned into 18.3s, a tall order to claw back in Sunday’s four stages.

"I don’t think it [the time penalty] had such a huge influence [on the error]. We managed to get going again but unfortunately we didn’t have the hybrid lights active" Elfyn Evans

Neuville had managed to reclaim third from Lappi by 4.2s, but Solberg’s hopes of a top-five appeared over after receiving a 2m40s penalty for checking into the final stage late after stopping on a road section to fix a throttle issue. M-Sport’s woes continued when Breen, who won stage 11 after returning under restart rules, lost power on stage 14, moments before Fourmaux appeared to suffer a similar issue on the next test. “It’s a bit different to Monte Carlo,” quipped M-Sport managing director Malcolm Wilson. “We've had a couple of technical issues today with Craig and Adrien which I didn't expect, if I'm going to be honest. It's new cars, new conditions, but it's not what we wanted, that's for sure.”

Come Sunday morning, Rovanpera was able to relax after nearest rival Evans made a mistake while pushing hard in a long left-hander, finding resistance in the form of a snowbank on Sunday morning’s first stage. His GR Yaris suffered a broken radiator, which he quickly mended, but a lack of active lights on his hybrid system prompted the second hybrid-induced retirement of the rally. “I don’t think it [the time penalty] had such a huge influence [on the error],” explained Evans. “We managed to get going again but unfortunately we didn’t have the hybrid lights active, and we had to stop for that reason.”

Elfyn Evans ultimately lost out due to a hybrid power issue which will prove critical in the 2022 WRC title fight

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This allowed Rovanpera to cruise to a third career win by 22.0s from Neuville, claiming the lead in the WRC standings in the process. The victory emulated that of his father Harri, whose only WRC win arrived in Sweden while driving for Peugeot in 2001. Lappi added further gloss to his head-turning return to secure the final podium spot, 8.6s shy of Neuville. Katsuta was fourth ahead of Greensmith, who moved to fourth overall in the championship after back-to-back fifth-place finishes. Home hero Solberg was the final Rally1 car to compete the full distance in sixth. The final power stage highlighted what could have been for Tanak, who won the test to bag the five bonus points, while Breen salvaged a solitary point.

Reigning champion Andreas Mikkelsen claimed the WRC2 honours in his Skoda, seventh overall, after seeing off the Volkswagen of fellow Norwegian Ole Christian Veiby, while Britain’s Jon Armstrong won the Ford Fiesta-based Junior WRC class, which also featured the first African crew to ever finish Rally Sweden courtesy of Kenyan duo McRae Kimathi and Mwangi Kioni.

On any other weekend, Rovanpera’s win would have prompted a big fanfare such was the class of his latest success, but celebrations were muted and put into perspective due to events of far greater significance. “For sure I’m really pleased, I didn’t think we could be this good especially starting first on Friday,” said Rovanpera. “I don’t feel like celebrating too much now, it has been a really difficult weekend for the people in Ukraine. I just want to really hope they have the strength and hope in these difficult times.”

Kalle Rovanpera paid tribute to the people of Ukraine after his Rally Sweden victory

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