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

Kalle Rovanpera broke a decade-old record in becoming the World Rally Championship's youngest-ever winner in a truly dominant performance on Estonia's fast gravel roads. Staving off the challenge of Hyundai's Craig Breen, his committed drive showed a maturity beyond his 20 years that gives Toyota's post-Ogier era a far brighter complexion

Updated Jul 19, 2021, 3:46 PM

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.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.