WRC 2022 Croatia Rally Review: Kalle Rovanpera wins by 4.3 seconds

Kalle Rovanpera, Toyota, secured the rally win 4.3 seconds over his closest rival, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and the Finnish driver has now increased his lead in the drivers standings.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville finished nearly over two and a half minutes over Rovanpera but still had 46 seconds in hand over M-Sport Ford’s Craig Breen, who finished fourth place.
After the Finnish driver secured the win in Sweden and Croatia, Rovanpera (76 points) has now established a 29-point lead over second-place Neuville (47 points) in the standings. While, in the manufacturer standings, Toyota (126 points) now has a 42-point lead over Hyundai, in second place (84 points).

Here’s how the rally unfolded…

Friday (Day One)
It was a wet start to the first day of the Croatia rally and Rovanpera had a comfortable lead of one minute and 23 seconds ahead of Tanak, which ended after eight stages.
M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux had a moment in the early stages of the rally as he didn’t have sufficient heat in his tyres, he found himself going wide and through a farmer’s garden as a result.

Due to the wet conditions, Ford’s Gus Greensmith nearly rolled over after he slipped onto a grass bank. Fortunately, the British driver was able to continue on and swing his car around the hairpin that followed.

While last year’s runner up, Elfyn Evans (Toyota) had a poor start to the weekend in Croatia as he lost his front-left tyre and finished the first stage with one tyre on its rim.
After an alternator issue with their Hyundai, Neuville and his co-driver, Martijn Wydaeghe, pushed their Rally1 car to the service park between the morning and afternoon sessions. As they were four minutes late, they were given a 40 second late check-in penalty – which dropped them down to fourth place. However, after a good afternoon for Neuville, Tanak gained a puncture, in the seventh stage, and dropped to third behind his Belgian teammate.

Saturday (Day Two)

Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg had a poor start to the second day as he crashed put in stage nine as the Swedish driver went into a slide on a quick left-hander. Both Solberg and his co-driver were okay but the stage was cancelled as a result.

Neuville had a shocker on Saturday morning as he was slapped with a minute and 50 seconds worth of penalties, the minute came from a speeding fine and dropped to fourth in the morning. In the afternoon, the Belgian had a throttle issue on his Hyundai but it cleared itself out on SS14 and chased after Breen’s final podium spot.

Rovanpera, who remained out in the lead of the Croatia rally, lost a minute in the penultimate stage of the morning and this allowed Tanak to catch up to the Finnish driver. By the end of the first day Rovanpera had a – gap over Tanak.

Sunday (Day Three)

On a wet, damp final morning, Rovanpera struggled to gain and maintain heat inside his hard compound tyres as he mixed the hard compounds with the wets. This cost the rally leader 30 seconds to Tanak in second.

Tanak opted for the soft compounds which provided the Hyundai driver with more grip in the wet and slippery conditions. As a result, Tanak took the lead.

Neuville secured the stage win on the 18th stage of the weekend. He benefitted from the weather information and, on the following stage, cemented his third place position. After he took third from Greensmith on the first stage of the day (SS17).

After he lost the lead, Rovanpera hunted down Tanak on the final stage of the weekend, the Wolf Power Stage. He beat his teammate, Evans, by an impressive 21.9 seconds.

However, the rally leader suffered a lack of pace in the final stage and finished the power stage 5.7 slower than Rovanpera. This allowed Rovanpera to take the rally win by 4.3 seconds.

That’s all for the article: WRC 2022 Croatia Rally Review: Kalle Rovanpera wins by 4.3 seconds! As Rovanpera builds his championship lead, who will be the one to challenge him for the title? Let us know in the comments!

Read more WRC here:

• Day Three: Kalle Rovanpera wins in Rally Sweden
• Day Two: Toyota Kalle Rovanpera on top in Rally Sweden
• Day One: Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville tops Rally Sweden
• Belgium completes 2022 calendar

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.