The key steps on Rovanpera's romp to a history-making WRC title

By:

Tom Howard

Dec 1, 2022, 11:59 AM

With only cameo roles played by legendary Sebastiens Ogier and Loeb, Kalle Rovanpera ushered in the new hybrid era for the World Rally Championship by becoming its youngest champion. Here's how Toyota's Flying Finn crushed the competition, led by Hyundai's departing star Ott Tanak

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It was somehow appropriate that the rise of a new rallying superpower should coincide with the World Rally Championship celebrating its 50th season and ushering in a new hybrid era. For the best part of two decades, rallying’s top tier had been dominated by two Frenchmen, Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier, the duo’s stranglehold punctuated only once since 2004 when Ott Tanak marched his way to the 2019 title.

With Loeb and reigning champion Ogier taking only part-time cameo roles this year with M-Sport and Toyota respectively, the prospect of a new name on the world championship trophy seemed likely. But few would have predicted Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera to rip up the record books and redefine the WRC winning formula so comprehensively.

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Tom Howard

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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.