Why Rovanpera's Poland win will be remembered as one of his great WRC drives

Kalle Rovanpera has rewritten the World Rally Championship record books in becoming the youngest event winner, world champion and back-to-back title winner, and now he’s won a rally he wasn’t even supposed to contest. Is there anything the flying Finn can’t do in a rally car?

It’s a valid question, because Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen defied the odds to take victory in Poland after receiving a last-minute call up to act as the perfect supersub for Toyota in its hour of need.

“I wasn’t really expecting much and of course every time you put the helmet on you try to do your best,” admitted Rovanpera. “You always have a chance and have to count on yourself, but I knew it would be difficult. You need to keep going and try all the time.”

Toyota’s need was to replace eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier and navigator Vincent Landais after the pairing were ruled out of the event following a road traffic accident during Tuesday’s recce. Ogier and Landais were taken to hospital for checks along with the driver and passenger of the car involved in the collision, all of whom avoided serious injuries.

Rovanpera was changing the spark plugs on a jet ski, while Halttunen was getting a tattoo in Estonia, when their phones began to ring. It triggered a mad dash to Poland involving a private jet to compete without undergoing a pre-event test or meticulously studying onboard videos.

To borrow a timely football analogy, it was maybe rallying’s equivalent of the Denmark national team of 1992, who were relaxing on the beach when they were called to replace Yugoslavia for that year’s UEFA European Championship – a tournament they would famously go on to win. While Rovanpera is far from the underdog status Denmark held in 1992, he had largely written off his victory chances after undergoing a rushed recce of the stages completed just hours before the rally start following special dispensation from the FIA.

“I think having a clean rally would be the first target otherwise we are of no help to the team,” predicted Rovanpera before the start. “The most difficult thing will be to have the pace without learning the stages on a fast rally like this. It’s not going to be easy with only pacenotes.”

Having flown in as a last-minute replacement for Ogier, Rovanpera stunned the WRC yet again despite no preparation

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala assured him “there was no expectation to fight for the win” given the lack of preparation, and a top-five result was the target. But an already tired Rovanpera (from watching the NHL Stanley Cup final the day before the call) battled a lack of prep and fatigue to somehow work his magic.

This wizardry played out in searing heat on Poland’s high-speed gravel roads that would normally suit Rovanpera, but the event was effectively an all-new version of a rally that had been away from the calendar since 2017.

Back then it made the headlines for crowd trouble, prompting its cull from the WRC. Sadly, despite efforts from organisers to implement a series of stringent safety measures in accordance with a detailed safety plan, prepared and approved months in advance, a minority of thousands of spectators blighted its one-off return to the WRC.

"We had to stop or cancel three stages before the spectators began to understand that we weren’t going to give up"
Michele Mouton

Crowd controlling issues were a major talking point on Friday, and officials were forced to cancel stages three (Wieliczki) and seven (Olecko), while stage six (Wieliczki 2) was briefly red-flagged due to spectator safety issues. A number of people were hiding in the forests while the safety cars passed through, before then emerging in dangerous locations.

“I was hoping that people would have learned a bit about the WRC rules,” said FIA safety delegate Michele Mouton. “From the very first day, we could see that they hadn’t. I told myself that nothing had changed since 2017.

“Safety was the number one priority, so we had to do something. With the onboard cameras and the work carried out by Nicolas Klinger [deputy FIA safety delegate], we’re more efficient. We had to stop or cancel three stages before the spectators began to understand that we weren’t going to give up.”

Crowd issues aside, the other major storyline on Friday was the sudden exit of rally favourite Ott Tanak on stage two. After winning Thursday night’s superspecial, misfortune struck the Estonian, who was forced to retire when a deer jumped into the road and was collected at 117mph, destroying the front of his Hyundai.

Once again Rally Poland was blighted by crowd safety issues which led to stages being cancelled

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“It was on a straight,” related Tanak. “We have checked that from the moment the head of the deer came out of the bush and the impact was 0.26 seconds, it was very short. There was no time to panic and really no time to react as well.”

The day belonged to another Hyundai driver, Andreas Mikkelsen, who took victory on the stage where Tanak came to a halt. Making the most of his road position, the 2016 Rally Poland winner, on his gravel rally debut in a Rally1 car, scored a first stage win since 2019 Rally GB. Another triumph followed in stage four as Mikkelsen extended his rally lead.

That advantage was lost briefly to Rovanpera in stage five before a nominal time awarded in stage six, where Mikkelsen was the only Rally1 competitor disadvantaged by the red flag, helped him back into a lead that stood at 1.8s at the end of Friday.

“I think everything is happening much slower on gravel than on Tarmac, so I think pretty much for everyone it’s easier to adapt to a gravel car,” reckoned Mikkelsen, who had struggled in his previous outings on asphalt in Monte Carlo and Croatia.

“First pass was good but second pass we were way too careful on the long stage and not taking advantage of what this equipment can do on rough roads. I’m used to the Rally2 tyres where you have to be careful not to knock them off the rim.”

After predictably struggling on the first pass of the stages, Rovanpera was frustrated by not being able to fight on stage four, and offered an insight into the tiredness battle he was fighting following the short nights of stage information cramming: “It’s quite funny; last night I was watching an [onboard] video on the laptop and I fell asleep on the laptop. With this road position, we should be 10 seconds faster.”

It was perhaps fortunate for his rivals that he wasn’t faster; Rovanpera ended Friday as Mikkelsen’s nearest rival after going faster in the second pass now he “knew what was coming”.

In terms of the championship fight, the opening day went to Elfyn Evans. After starting second on the road, the Toyota driver sat in third place, two seconds behind Mikkelsen.

Mikkelsen was the surprise leader on Friday after Tanak's early exit caused by hitting at deer at 117mph

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

“Overall, I have good predictability in the car at least and you never find perfection in this game, but it is consistent and it gives me confidence,” said Evans after recent struggles in Portugal and Sardinia.

But more importantly, Evans was among a chorus of those demanding for something to resolve the crowd issues, adding: “Let’s say this was already a concern and it seems like it’s still reality, but definitely something needs to be done for tomorrow.”

Hyundai’s championship leader Thierry Neuville took the brunt of the damage from road sweeping, losing 22s in stage two. By the end of the day, during which he was also hampered by a handbrake issue, he was seventh and trailing the leader by 29.8s, behind an impressive Gregoire Munster (M-Sport Ford) and ahead of Takamoto Katsuta, who struggled for speed and confidence on his Poland debut.

"I’m happy that we are at the end of the loop. But with this little preparation it is so f****** scary, I don’t like it at all"
Kalle Rovanpera

“All in all, there was not much more we could have done,” summed up Neuville. “It’s frustrating when you see those one-shot drivers coming and easily go faster than you, but it is what it is.”

But the surprise of Friday was Rally1 debutant Martins Sesks, who fell into Neuville’s “one-shot” driver category. The Latvian enjoyed what M-Sport team principal Richard Millener labelled as “one of the strongest debuts in a while” to haul a non-hybrid version of the Ford Puma, featuring 130bhp less than his rivals, to fifth, 7.7s from the lead.

Sesks was only 0.2s behind M-Sport’s lead hybrid-powered driver Adrien Fourmaux, who was “living his life one stage at a time”, according to the Frenchman, after picking The Fast and the Furious as his movie of choice for his latest comical stage-end one-liners.

“It’s incredible,” said Sesks, whose stunned reaction to missing out on a stage two win by 0.3s lit up social media. “Everything is difficult in the car and that is what makes it easy because it’s all difficult and you have to concentrate on everything.”

Sesks’ pace raised the question of the need for hybrid, but the 100kW unit was always going to have a lesser impact on Poland’s high-speed stages. 

Driving without a hybrid system in his Rally1 Puma barely hindered impressive category debutant Martins Sesks

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Saturday provided a huge sigh of relief when event organisers redeployed police to the forestry areas that had been identified as crowd trouble black spots. Aside from a 25-minute stoppage on stage nine, the day ran smoothly, with all seven stages completed.

It was a day where Rovanpera was able to once again show his once-in-a-generation talent. He incredibly won six of the seven stages despite his lack of preparation, and ended the morning loop 0.4s ahead of Evans, while Mikkelsen’s challenge to keep pace with the Toyota duo began to falter.

It wasn’t easy for Rovanpera, who was fighting a mixture of frustration and fear to keep pace with rivals. “It is not enough I need to be much quicker, but I’m happy that we are at the end of the loop,” he sighed. “But with this little preparation it is so f****** scary, I don’t like it at all.”

To add further gloss to this performance, Toyota opted for a predominantly soft tyre package for the afternoon against Mikkelsen, who had three hards – a move Rovanpera described as a “bad decision” as his rubber started to give up. Even so, Rovanpera ended the day with a stage win that prompted a “hats off” acknowledgement from Mikkelsen. The reigning champion was on course for a memorable win with a performance that had surpassed Toyota’s expectations.

“World champions have something more than the others and they are capable of stretching themselves more,” admired a mesmerised Latvala. “We have seen it with Sebastien Loeb and with Sebastien Ogier and now with Kalle, as I never expected he would be that strong here without the preparation.”

Rovanpera took a 9.4s lead over Mikkelsen into the final day after drama struck a luckless Evans, who suffered a right-rear tyre delamination on stage 13, pushing him 16.1s adrift and into third for 13 Saturday points, against the 15 and 18 taken by Mikkelsen and Rovanpera respectively.

The other talking point from Saturday surrounded Tanak, who rejoined after repairs that were completed in the morning’s early hours after Hyundai had flown in a replacement part. Once Tanak had run the morning stages as road sweeper, Hyundai tactically retired the car to prepare for a Super Sunday points attack.

It was a decision Neuville felt hampered his progress. The Belgian was left to rue a stage 15 error that caused him to miss out on two points, while Sesks impressively hung onto fifth by 0.1s.

Tanak was left with a case of 'what if' having demonstrated strong pace on the stages he did complete

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

“Each car you can have in front cleaning the road is an advantage, especially in a championship fight where every single point really counts – I think it was a mistake, but this is what it is,” grumbled Neuville.

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul added: “We wanted to give a bit of relief to Thierry by having an extra car doing a bit of cleaning in the morning when it mattered. But in the afternoon, obviously the benefits are lower, and it was very clear that nothing would be happening that would really help Ott in the championship.”

Tanak did return on Sunday to showcase the blistering speed he could have delivered, winning the first two stages despite opening the road. The first was a simply stunning effort that prompted Fourmaux to say that the 2019 world champion was “on another
level”. The pace was enough to salvage 11 points from a maximum 12 on Sunday – a decent return having completed only eight stages.

A puncture robbed Evans of any points from the final Power Stage, and cost a further point by dropping him from third to fourth in the Sunday standings

At the front Rovanpera was not yet thinking of victory, revealing that the final four stages were the worst in terms of his rushed preparation. But in true Rovanpera style, there was no need to worry and he won the penultimate stage before easing his way to one of the finest victories of his career by 28.3s.

“For sure, it doesn’t feel so different now because we have been working all of the time and it’s just the result of the hard work, but later on I will realise [what he has achieved],” he stated. “I’m just quite tired at the moment.”

Team-mate Evans joined him on the podium in second for a Toyota 1-2, but only after a puncture robbed him of any points from the final Power Stage, and cost a further point by dropping him from third to fourth in the Sunday standings. Evans did, however, score a total of 17 points to close the gap to championship leader Neuville to 15. The Hyundai man took five by winning the Power Stage to claim fourth ahead of the impressive Sesks.

Fourmaux’s strong rally was rewarded by a third podium of the season in what Millener hailed as his driver’s best performance. This third-place finish came after a puncture on stage 16 caused by clipping a bank resulted in Mikkelsen sliding to sixth, ahead of Munster and the Toyota of Katsuta.

But when looking back at Rally Poland, the overriding story was that you should never write off Rovanpera.

Where does Rally Poland victory as a supersub rank in Rovanpera's WRC best wins?

Photo by: Toyota Racing