How Rovanpera's Croatia turnaround sent a message to his WRC rivals

Written on Kalle Rovanpera’s crash helmet are the words “full send”. Seemingly it was this approach that allowed the World Rally Championship’s new star to somehow conjure up an against-the-odds victory in a Rally Croatia thriller.

Rally fans are simply being spoilt this season as Croatia’s unique asphalt roads served up a second final-stage showdown in three events, following January’s Sebastien Loeb versus Sebastien Ogier Monte Carlo blockbuster. Perhaps Croatia’s dramatic WRC debut 12 month ago, when Ogier defeated Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans by 0.6 seconds – the third-closest winning margin in WRC history – was an omen. However, nobody could have predicted the climax that unfolded.

Mother Nature played a starring role in this latest piece of top-notch sporting theatre as treacherous wet and foggy conditions plagued the three days. Few would have listed eventual winner Rovanpera as a favourite given his limited knowledge of the roads after last year’s Zagreb dalliance lasted all of five kilometres before a huge accident prompted a swift exit.

However, the 21-year-old has since been on a journey ripping up the record books, becoming the WRC's youngest-ever winner last year courtesy of dominant triumphs in Estonia and the Acropolis. And the 2022-spec Rovanpera appears to be an upgrade on that – a more mature, self-confident, pragmatic, cool and (perhaps most importantly) mind-blowingly fast version.

Rovanpera raised the bar again after dominating the majority of the event until the weather gods’ final offering, on the penultimate stage, washed away a commanding 28.4s lead to set up a grandstand finish. It was here when Rovanpera summoned a maximum attack “full send” drive to overhaul a 1.4s deficit and snatch victory from Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by 4.3s. It left onlookers and even his own Toyota team dumfounded.

Rovanpera stunned his own team by overhauling Tanak on the power stage after a rain shower had robbed him of a comfortable lead

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Such a grandstand finish was the perfect tonic to awake the WRC from its eight-week slumber since Rovanpera’s dominant triumph on the snow in Sweden back in February. In a peculiar quirk, the break between Sweden and Croatia was longer than the frantic off-season in which the teams were burning the midnight oil to ready their all-new hybrid beasts for the new Rally1 era that began in Monte Carlo.

The hiatus allowed Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport-Ford valuable time to rest their troops and develop their new hybrid machines. For Hyundai in particular, this was music to their ears. It allowed the Korean marque, which emerged significantly on the back foot in Monte Carlo but showing signs of recovery in Sweden, an opportunity to reset.

Pierre-Louis Loubet was next to encounter tyre troubles, suffering the misfortune of puncturing both front wheels, reducing him to a crawl. Luckily he was carrying two spares but a third puncture on stage two signalled an early end to his first day back in the WRC

Impending inclement weather dominated much of the pre-event discussions, with drivers predicting the addition of rain to the mix would create seriously challenging road conditions that would benefit those first on the road.

“There are a lot of cuts on the rally, and some are like gravel, so it’s maybe worse sometimes than the mud because it’s just like a lot of stones in the road,” said M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux. “We will have also a lot of cuts with mud, so it will be really tricky.”

That pre-event prediction was absolutely on the money as the combination of weather and drivers cutting corners bringing dirt onto the road would provide a breeding ground for punctures creating headaches in the Zagreb service park.

After a dry Thursday shakedown, as forecast, the wet weather rolled in on Friday. Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi emerged as the first Rally1 retirement after clipping a huge boulder used as an anti-cut device. The impact was enough to rip the front right corner out of his GR Yaris, ending the Finn’s day before it had really started. He returned on Saturday showing what could have been by racking up four stage wins.

Worse was to come for Toyota as Evans, desperate for a result after retirements in Monte Carlo and Sweden, suffered the first of a series of punctures for crews. The Welshman’s front left came off the rim, costing him 1m20s. After bouncing back to win stage three, he picked up a second front left puncture on stage four and never recovered.

Greensmith survived this moment with a bank, but later retired after suffering four punctures

Photo by: M-Sport

M-Sport’s new signing Pierre-Louis Loubet was next to encounter tyre troubles, suffering the misfortune of puncturing both front wheels, reducing him to a crawl. Luckily he was carrying two spares but a third puncture on stage two signalled an early end to his first day back in the WRC, after sustaining a broken hip from being hit by a speeding driver in Paris last October.

Team-mate Gus Greensmith was the first to really test his luck in the conditions after running wide on a right-hander on the opening stage that resulted in a spectacular ride up a grass bank, narrowly avoiding a tree in the process. He recovered but without a front splitter.

Fourmaux was not so lucky as M-Sport’s difficult morning worsened when the Frenchman was caught out by a wet patch on stage three. He lost the rear of his Puma before spearing through a hedge, coming to rest in the back garden of a residential property and pulling up just in front of a concrete duck statue. Both he and co-driver Alexandre Coria were unharmed but chassis damage ruled the Puma out of the rally completely, spelling a third consecutive retirement. The crew returned to the service park, but not after the property owner had offered the pair some local cheese to try.

While his rivals were falling foul of the conditions and punctures, up front Rovanpera capitalised on the cleanest of road surfaces thanks to his road position. Winning three of the four morning stages, the Finn was simply in a different league, perfecting the amount of cuts to take. He went on to win six of Friday’s eight stages to lead Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by 1m04s after a performance Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala declared “his best ever in a World Rally Car”.

Neuville had emerged as Rovanpera’s nearest challenger and ended Friday morning just 12.5s adrift, but it was here where the Belgian’s victory hopes unravelled. An alternator failure after stage four required Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe to push the stricken i20 N for 800 metres to the service park, where they collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. To make matters worse, they checked in four minutes late, incurring a 40s penalty.

This matter was not over. A further one-minute penalty, 1900-Euro fine and two days public service was issued by the FIA stewards to the pair after the car was clocked driving 156km/h (97mph) on a road section limited to 80km/h (50mph). It dropped the pair to fourth and elevated team-mate Ott Tanak into second, 1m23s behind Rovanpera. Tanak had been delayed by a puncture and hybrid issue.

M-Sport’s Craig Breen sat third after a solid Friday, barring a 10s time loss for an overshoot, that had him ahead of Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg, Evans and Greensmith. That was, until the latter picked up four punctures in the afternoon that put him out of the running.

Neuville was quick - on the stages and off them - and left to rue an alternator failure that caused him to clock into service late

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Rovanpera's dominance was halted on Saturday when he became the sixth driver to suffer a front-left puncture on the wet tyres as rain and heavy fog descended, reducing visibility to 10 metres in places. It wiped out 54.5s that spurred Tanak into life, now only 16.8s adrift. The 2019 world champion turned the screw on the Finn, closing to within 13.0s, before Rovanpera responded with a blistering run on the day’s final stage.

“This is my reply! It was a good stage – full send”, said Rovanpera as he opened a 19.9s lead over Tanak heading into Sunday.

Breen remained in third, counting himself lucky to have emerged through the fog ahead of Neuville. Despite a loss of engine power, the Hyundai closed to within 4.9s of the Irishman.

“I'm happy just to get to the end of that,” said Breen. “They were the worst conditions I've seen in my life and I could see absolutely nothing. This guy [co-driver Paul Nagle] did a cracking job. He was always keeping me updated on what I needed to see.”

Come the penultimate stage Hyundai were smiling. Tanak monstered through the torrential rain, turning a 28.4s defect into a 1.4s lead, as a floundering Rovanpera looked crestfallen

The fog accounted for stage 15 as organisers cancelled the test due to poor visibility, while the day’s first stage was also scrubbed after a high-speed crash for Solberg, ending in his i20 N catching fire. Luckily, driver and co-driver Elliott Edmondson escaped unharmed. The fire did promote Evans to fifth ahead of Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, the last of the Rally1 runners.

And so came Sunday, which seemingly looked to be a calm affair. The hard tyre-shod Rovanpera extended his lead to what seemed an unassailable 31.1s advantage in dry conditions with three stages to go as a gamble to fit softs appeared to have backfired for Tanak. But a twist was coming, in the form of dark grey clouds. Rovanpera and Tanak were the only drivers to take any wet tyres in their package, two each, but Hyundai’s weather team had information that Toyota didn’t.

“Our information for the weather was it is cloudy but the rain should not come down,” said Latvala. “But this gamble that Hyundai did, it seems maybe they have some different information."

It prompted Tanak to take softs, a much better tyre to deal with rain should his team info ring true. Come the penultimate stage Hyundai were smiling. Tanak monstered through the torrential rain, turning a 28.4s defect into a 1.4s lead, as a floundering Rovanpera looked crestfallen. Meanwhile, the rest of the Rally1 runners slithered their way through desperately tricky conditions on slicks. It was here that Neuville managed to pull a decisive gap on Breen, having leapfrogged the Ford driver for third early on Sunday morning.

Tanak has handed a lifeline by the weather, which put him into the lead with one stage to go

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

The stage was set for a showdown and yet another twist as the final power stage was bathed in sunshine. But Rovanpera was up against it, knowing his hard tyres would be no match for Tanak’s softs on the dry but muddy road. There was only one thing for it – another dose of Rovanpera in “full send mode” as the Finn performed the unimaginable to beat Tanak. Cue stunned faces in the Toyota and Hyundai camps.

“I think this is one of the toughest weekends for sure, it was really tough conditions and everyone had issues,” said Rovanpera. “To be driving to the last corner flat-out, it was nice to win.

“When I saw the pictures from the power stage, how muddy it was and knowing that Ott had the soft tyres, I was pretty sure it was going to be difficult to match him, but I decided to try anyway because you always need to try.”

Latvala added: “He is a miracle kid. It was an amazing performance. I did not think he could win the stage and the rally. I don’t know where he pulled that speed. I have no words to describe the drive.”

Tanak also paid tribute to Rovanpera’s display after scoring his first podium since Finland last October.

“It is nothing to do with [hard] luck, just pure speed and performance from Kalle,” Tanak told Autosport. “It was the best we could do.”

While Rovanpera’s heroics stole the show, Neuville did his best to throw away third when he ran wide into a ditch, pitching his i20 N into a near flip. Luckily he limped to the finish with a front and rear puncture, 46.3s ahead of Breen, with Evans a lonely but important fifth.

So, what was learned from Rally Croatia? The answer is simple: Rovanpera is the driver to beat for this year’s world title.

Rovanpera has now won two rallies on the bounce and stepped up to the mantle of Toyota team leader with Ogier reducing his schedule to a part-season

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images