How Rovanpera's latest Estonia masterclass left his WRC rivals stumped

If the World Rally Championship had its own dictionary, then Kalle Rovanpera’s crushing victory last weekend at Rally Estonia would be epitomised as the definition of ‘masterclass’. The new flying Finn is enjoying an extraordinary run of form, defying belief by the relative ease displayed in overcoming the toughest challenges the WRC can muster.

Estonia’s turbulent weather did its level best to make life as difficult as possible, but a glimpse inside the Rovanpera Toyota cockpit and the timing screen would have you believe that this was an everyday drive. Last weekend’s fifth win from seven events this year even left his Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala lost for words to explain how this 21-year-old, who he’s already described as a “miracle kid”, is able to drive at a level his contemporaries appear unable to reach.

It was perhaps poignant that the latest round of the WRC, which is fast becoming the Kalle Rovanpera Show, arrived at Rally Estonia, the epicentre of his rapid rise to the forefront of rallying’s top tier. It has been 12 months since that breakthrough win on Estonia gravel, where a new youngest-ever WRC winner was crowned. Since that moment the floodgates have opened. Rovanpera has clinched seven of the past 13 rallies, winning in Greece (2021) followed by triumphs this term in Sweden, Croatia, Portugal, Kenya and now Estonia in what appears to be an unassailable charge to become the youngest WRC champion of all time.

Fresh from conquering the brutal Safari Rally, a victory Rovanpera confessed was his “hardest yet”, you would have got short odds on another win in Estonia. But, this being Ott Tanak country, the four-time Rally Estonia winner was expected to be hard to beat if his fast-but-fragile Hyundai could perform.

Come the ceremonial start, the rally-mad Estonians flocked to host city Tartu and it was clear that Tanak would have the equivalent of a 12th man in football, as he received a rockstar reception from thousands of airhorn-armed supporters. Arguably Estonia’s most famous sports personality, he downplayed his stardom, saying: “I’m far from a rockstar, I know nothing about rock.”

Introductions over, Rally Estonia was to largely follow a script that is becoming increasingly familiar, although it was M-Sport’s Craig Breen who created the early headlines by winning Thursday night’s super special to remind the locals that the second-place finisher from the past two years was a genuine contender in his Ford Puma.

Breen's Friday off resigned him to an extended test session for the remainder of the rally

Photo by: M-Sport

Breen’s moment in the limelight was fleeting, with his victory hopes dashed by stage four on Friday. That was when he was caught out by a medium-speed left-hander while in contention with the frontrunners. Broken front suspension, caused when his Puma hit a concrete post hidden in the grassy undergrowth, spelled an early end to the day.

“Unfortunately at the corner, and I don’t know how many times I have done the corner over the years in that direction, under braking I just got caught out,” related Breen. “It would have been a nothing accident but in the grass was a big concrete post.”

Friday morning belonged to Toyota as the Japanese marque debuted its upgraded engine and rear wing, designed to combat Hyundai’s superior top-end speed. It was the GR Yaris driven by Elfyn Evans that won all four morning stages, including the rally’s longest, which featured a huge man-made crest and drop that Tanak described as like “a ski resort for rally cars”. The Welshman opened up a 12.5s lead over Tanak, while roadsweeper Rovanpera sat third, admitting he was “lucky” after hitting a rock with his right-rear wheel.

Evans claimed a fifth stage win to start the loop to lead by 19.9s, but when the rain started to fall Rovanpera began to chip away, taking nine seconds back courtesy of two stage wins, before pulling off what is becoming his party trick

Hyundai had been quietly optimistic that it could challenge for the win in Estonia, given its pace on smooth gravel. While the all-too-familiar reliability issues stayed away, it became clear that the i20 N didn’t have the performance or rear stability to fight the Toyotas, as Tanak, Thierry Neuville and Oliver Solberg had to wrestle their cars through the stages. The Swede suffered a wild 360-degree spin battling to find grip and lost even more time to a stall.

“I am driving very hard, but it's more like fighting and not driving very fast,” said Tanak, who would then receive a 10s penalty for failing to engage electric-only mode during a designated EV zone on Thursday night. That dropped him to third, elevating Rovanpera to second behind Evans. Neuville added: "We made some changes, but I was fighting a lot to keep it straight.”

There was also an issue for one of the Toyotas – Esapekka Lappi was struggling with the brakes on his GR Yaris, and that left him almost a minute adrift. “I need to change my driving style completely to try to manage,” he said. “When you left-foot brake, you have nothing.”

The service park expected rain to dominate Friday, but its arrival was delayed until the afternoon. Sudden intermittent heavy downpours created unpredictable and extremely slippery conditions that proved to be a factor in deciding the rally outcome.

Evans led for most of Friday, but the arrival of rain allowed Rovanpera to strike

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Evans claimed a fifth stage win to start the loop to lead by 19.9s, but when the rain started to fall Rovanpera began to chip away, taking nine seconds back courtesy of two stage wins, before pulling off what is becoming his party trick. The rain intensified for the final stage of the day and, knowing the conditions would worsen for the later runners, Rovanpera elected to push. The result was a 22.6s swing as Evans faced the the heaviest of the rain, and was lucky to survive a “fair moment" with the bushes. “The weather on the last stage was on our side,” admitted Rovanpera.

It was a move Rovanpera had executed when rain arrived in Portugal and Kenya, and he pulled away from Evans, showcasing his incredible feel for extreme conditions. It wasn’t the last time this stunt would be pulled.

As the rain hammered down, chaos ensued as Lappi and the M-Sport duo of Gus Greensmith and Pierre-Louis Loubet were all caught out at the same section. Loubet, who had been sitting in sixth, struggled for grip following a jump landing and rolled onto his side after hitting a bank. Luckily fans rushed to right the Puma, but two minutes were lost. Lappi and Greensmith both ran wide but were able to recover.

Tanak also suffered a wild moment caused by a misted-up windscreen when a heating trunking pipe disconnected itself, prompting quick-thinking co-driver Martin Jarveoja to prop up the pipe with his left foot while reading the pacenotes.

Once the field returned to service, Rovanpera held an 11.7s lead over Evans, with Tanak 44.3s adrift in third ahead of the recovering Lappi and Neuville, who had already conceded the fight.

“I have no confidence in the car,” grimaced the Belgian. “I do not trust and I know I cannot fight with the guys at the front this weekend. I have to stay clever and try to bring the car home.”

To compound Hyundai’s lack of pace, Solberg fell way down the order after losing his power-steering following contact with a rock. It resulted in a three-minute penalty for checking into stage eight 19 minutes late.

The changeable sunshine and rain showers continued into Saturday, when Rovanpera stamped his authority on the event. Evans briefly took a 0.6s nibble out of the Finn’s lead after winning stage 10. Rovanpera said he wasn’t “awake” in the test, but it proved to be the required alarm call, sparking a run of seven consecutive stage wins and effectively ending Evans’s victory hopes.

The Hyundais lamented struggling for pace and confidence, with Tanak left trailing by the leading Toyotas

Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

“Realistically, now there's quite a big gap," said Evans. “In this rally you need to be consistently chipping in the times and to be fair to Kalle, I've had no answer this afternoon – and even all day.”

Despite surging into a 29.1s lead, Rovanpera was typically understated: “I felt we were driving well and pushing quite hard all the time, but still managing the risk a bit and not pushing in the rough places. I think we did quite well.”

While Tanak had all but given up to focus on securing third, team-mate Neuville moved to fourth when Lappi knocked a tyre off its rim following an awkward landing from a jump. A similar fate befell Greensmith, dropping the pair down the order.

Solberg’s eventful rally continued as he produced one of the saves of the season when his i20 N flicked sideways over a jump. Somehow he wrestled the tree-bound car back. It prompted the return of Solberg’s “this is proper rallying” Safari Rally catchphrase. The heroics deserved a reward, and it so nearly came in the form of a maiden WRC stage win, but he was denied by 0.1s by M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux on Saturday’s final stage.

"For the first time in my life, I have not been competitive in Estonia, so that’s a bit frustrating. It’s unfortunately the situation we are in – we did everything we could, but third place feels disappointing" Ott Tanak

The Estonian clouds had one last downpour to coincide with the rally-ending powerstage, creating conditions Lappi described as the “craziest stage he’d ever driven”, such was the combination of mud, ruts and standing water.

With the win in the bag, there was no need for Rovanpera to push. But that instruction doesn’t appear to be in his vocabulary, especially when there are bonus points up for grabs. And so an extraordinary display was capped off by a mindblowing, yet nerve-jangling run for the onlooking Toyota team bosses. The result was a 14th stage win by a whopping 22.5s from Evans to claim victory by more than a minute.

“The powerstage was a big push from us," said a jubilant Rovanpera. “I saw that in this weather you can make some differences and I tried to push a bit and still be a bit safe. I was enjoying the driving. There was no talk [with the team] at all. We just decided to go for it.”

Tanak delivered his fans a podium in third, but the frustration was clear to see. His weekend ended with a €4000 fine for failing to wear a Pirelli cap on the podium.

Rovanpera's convincing powerstage display only underlined his superiority in Estonia

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“For the first time in my life, I have not been competitive in Estonia, so that’s a bit frustrating,” he said. “It’s unfortunately the situation we are in – we did everything we could, but third place feels disappointing. There are many fundamental things that didn't go right [during the car's development], and now we are having to progress them as we go."

Neuville salvaged fourth to remain Rovanpera’s nearest championship rival, albeit 83 points adrift, while Takamoto Katsuta recovered from a roll in shakedown to net fifth in his Toyota ahead of Lappi, who denied Fourmaux sixth on the final stage. M-Sport’s difficult rally was compounded by retirements for Loubet and Greensmith on the final day.

After yet another dominant display from Rovanpera, it appears that he has one hand on a record-breaking title with six events remaining. To make matters worse for his rivals, next up is his home round in Finland.

A sight that is becoming familiar in 2022 as Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen celebrate victory

Photo by: Toyota Racing