How Finland’s newest rally hero made WRC history in Estonia

Whatever Kalle Rovanpera achieves in his rally career, this year’s Rally Estonia will be forever etched in his mind as the event where he truly announced himself on the World Rally Championship stage.

Rovanpera’s prodigious talent has been known for some time and the son of 2001 WRC Rally Sweden winner Harri Rovanpera has been knocking on the door of the winners’ circle, but in Estonia his knocks were answered. The 20-year-old produced arguably the drive of his burgeoning career to date to claim a maiden WRC victory and in doing so became the youngest-ever winner in the championship’s history.

At times Rovanpera was simply untouchable, combining outrageous speed with controlled and measured drives to seal a dominant triumph across Estonia’s 24 fast and flowing gravel stages.

The event was something of a home round for Rovanpera given the Baltic nation is his place of residence, and has grown up around these frighteningly fast jump-laden roads. Many were licking their lips at the prospect of Rovanpera going head-to-head with the most famous person in Estonia – 2019 WRC champion and winner of Rally Estonia last year – Ott Tanak.

It’s hard to believe Rally Estonia is only in its second year as a WRC event after witnessing crowds flock to the event during a summer heatwave. But that is the power of the WRC and Tanak. The rally is Estonia’s answer to Euro 2020 and fans throw all their support behind a rapid blonde-haired Hyundai hero, akin to England’s obsession with ‘football coming home’.

Although boosted by an engine upgrade, Hyundai and Tanak’s bad luck that has been following him around like bad smell struck again, as three punctures in the space of two Friday morning stages spelt early retirement, robbing fans of Rovanpera versus Tanak.

The misfortune handed the advantage to Rovanpera, who ran with it. Despite facing a challenge from Hyundai’s Craig Breen, he turned his Friday night 8.5-second lead into a 50.7s advantage on Saturday. That advantage extended on Sunday to almost a minute over the impressive Irishman competing in his first WRC gravel event since last year’s Estonia visit.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

In hindsight, Rovanpera’s triumph in the opening superspecial on Thursday night was perhaps more of a warning sign than everyone first thought. It was the calm before the storm.

The WRC doesn’t seem to do quiet Fridays of late. It took just a morning loop of stages to turn the rally upside down. The hopes of a nation went from joy to despair in a heartbeat as Tanak went from taking the rally lead after winning stage two to early retirement by stage four.

After fitting his only spare, following a tyre failure while at full bore in stage three, two more punctures hit after Tanak slid wide at a right-hander and almost rolled. He elected to dive into a field rather than fight his car back onto the road immediately. The damage had been done and Tanak was left to pull up on an access road and watch his title aspirations surely evaporate.

It appeared punctures were like buses for Hyundai as another one turned up for Thierry Neuville, whose left rear let go also on stage four, losing 15s in the process. The third Hyundai, driven by Breen had been flying in second overall, but even it had its wings clipped, this time by M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith. The Briton suffered an engine issue that limited the Ford Fiesta to a crawl, throwing dust into the windscreen of Breen.

"I honestly did my best stage that I could. Once [Rovanpera] had done that it was a different objective for the rest of the weekend. Hats off to him" Craig Breen

"Same God damn thing as the rest of the year,” said Greensmith of the problem. “I’ve got it to the end of the stage, but I don't know what to say. I am fed up.”

Breen was equally fed up and his anger boiled over on the next stage when Greensmith pulled over again and retired. A marshal then stood in the middle of the road to slow the oncoming Breen, despite Greensmith car’s being safe and well off the road.

“I went into road mode and everything and saw someone at the top of the crest but the car was pulled in,” said Breen. “People need to be switched on – if it's not a danger then don’t f****** worry about it.”

Luckily for Breen, officials handed him notional times for the two stages where he was held up, leaving him 0.2s adrift of new leader Rovanpera.

Craig Breen, Paul Nagle, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Toyota also had its fair share of drama as Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Daniel Barritt were forced to retire from third place after stage four. Barritt reported neck and back pain caused by the landings from harsh jumps and crests, and was taken to hospital. He was later released but advised to rest up, forcing the pair that finished second in Kenya to withdraw.

As the dust literally settled, the remainder of the day was dominated by an enthralling tussle between Rovanpera and Breen. Despite limited time in the car this year, Breen offered a stern test to his rival, but six outright stage wins ensured the day belonged to Rovanpera, who built up an 8.5s lead.

Neuville managed to recover from his puncture to overhaul road-sweeper and championship leader Sebastien Ogier, who amazingly found himself briefly in third, while Elfyn Evans, struggling to click with his Yaris, was fifth, having overshot two junctions and stalled on stage three.

Another turning point of the event came on Saturday’s first stage, a brand new test for the field. In what will likely go down in rally folklore as one of the great drives, Rovanpera, who had done his homework, stamped his authority on the event.

He was 10.7s faster than the returning Tanak and 14.3s faster than his nearest rival Breen, nearly trebling his overall lead over the Hyundai driver. WRC All Live commentator Julian Porter summed the performance best, saying “you needed a visa to join Rovanpera in stage 10”.

Rovanpera’s pace sent a message that was heard loud and clear even if he didn’t think the drive was worth writing home about: “I was trying to do my job – it didn't feel anything special. We knew the first stage this morning was the most difficult stage of the rally, a really technical stage with brand new pacenotes, and we prepared really well for that knowing that we could make some difference.”

Breen knew what had hit him and finishing second became the target.

“It was very impressive and something very special,” said Breen. “I honestly did my best stage that I could. Once [Rovanpera] had done that it was a different objective for the rest of the weekend. Hats off to him.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC

Photo by: Toyota Racing

From there, Rovanpera drove superbly while backing off to gradually increase the lead to 50.7s by the finish of stage 18 at the end of the day. Tanak did his best to delight home fans with a string of six consecutive stage wins to tease onlookers what could have been, but the rally was firmly in Rovanpera’s grasp.

Neuville and Ogier rattled off stage wins to end the day in a comfortable third and fourth, while Evans’ confidence struggles continued in fifth. M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen was sixth having recovered from a puncture only for his Fiesta to develop a mechanical issue. Pierre-Louis Loubet was the last remaining WRC driver to have completed the distance thus far in seventh.

Rovanpera’s pace combined with calm management triggered high praise from Toyota boss Jari-Matti Latvala, who claimed “Kalle could not have been better today, it was a 10-out-of-10 day from him.”

The record books will show Tanak, who rejoined under restart rules on Saturday, scored 11 fastest times to Rovanpera’s eight, but even the home hero would have been hard pressed to deny the new flying Finn the win

Six stages stood in the way of Rovanpera and a record-breaking WRC triumph on Sunday. Despite huge pressure on his shoulders, the Finn remained cool, calm and collected as he navigated his way to the finish and a truly memorable win by 59.9s over Breen, who equalled his best WRC result.

“For sure when we finished it was a really big relief and you finally get the win,” said Rovanpera. “You feel the pressure releasing a bit so for sure that is a nice feeling.”

As for Latvala having to concede his youngest-ever winner record from Sweden 2008, the Finn was only happy to see his compatriot add that accolade alongside his trophy.

“I’m so happy to see him become the youngest ever to win a WRC rally and take the record from me,” said Latvala. “It keeps up the Finnish tradition, after Henri Toivonen held it before me. Kalle did such a fantastic job this weekend.”

Hyundai enjoyed a double podium with Neuville third, while a disappointed Tanak sparked wild scenes from the fans by winning the powerstage to salvage five bonus points.

Podium: Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC, Jari-Matti Latvala, Team principal Toyota Gazoo Racing

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“When you are not fighting for anything, it’s difficult to have the same focus as you usually would, so we have just concentrated on getting to the end of this rally,” said Tanak.

There were suggestions Hyundai could pull a strategic move to swap Breen and Neuville to benefit the latter’s title hopes, but it failed to materialise. That scenario may not have been helped by technical issues striking Neuville’s starter motor, resulting in the Belgian copping a 10s penalty for checking in late to the penultimate stage, leaving only a 11.6s gap to Ogier in fourth.

That was the least of Neuville’s worries after revealing he was far from feeling 100% on Sunday.

“I’m struggling with a lot of pain in my right eye since this morning and it is getting a little bit better,” he explained. “Even [co-driver] Martijn [Wydaeghe] was driving on the road section because I could not see anything. I didn’t feel well all day but at the end the job is done.”

The FIA then handed Neuville and Wydaeghe a suspended one event World Rally Championship ban and a €2500 fine for speeding after being clocked at 190km/h (120mph) in a 90km/h (55mph) road section.

Outside of the podium spots, the metronome that is Ogier finished fourth and extended his championship lead to 37 points over Evans, who came home fifth.

The record books will show Tanak, who rejoined under restart rules on Saturday, scored 11 fastest times to Rovanpera’s eight, but even the home hero would have been hard pressed to deny the new flying Finn the win.

While he may be outside of the title fight, Rally Estonia belonged to Rovanpera. Finland’s latest in a long line of rally heroes brought rallying home, ending the WRC-mad nation’s long drought since Latvala’s last win at Rally Australia in November 2018.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota Yaris WRC

Photo by: Toyota Racing