WRC Rally Estonia: Kalle Rovanpera dominates the weekend to win
17th July 2022Toyota Kalle Rovanpera put in a dominating performance from Saturday to Sunday to overthrow his teammate from the top spot to secure yet another rally win, in Estonia.
Rovanpera started his final charge off in the right way. The Finn who was walking away with the rally, and the championship, went on to secure three stage wins; SS19, SS20 and SS21, on Sunday morning.
Toyota’s Eskapekka Lappi was the only driver to beat the Finn who secured wins in the final two stages, before the Wolf Power Stage. Rovanpera, his co-driver, Jonne Halttunen, and their car proved to be the winning combination.
M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet was forced to retire early on, the Frenchman clipped a no-cut rock on the inside of a fast-paced, twist section in the opening stage. The Ford driver suffered a significant amount of damage and dragged to his front-left tyre across the control line.
On SS23, Lappi went to the top of the timing board with a time of 8:16.4, this was seven-seconds faster than Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg who finished second. Rovanpera went on to finish the stage in ninth, nearly 40-seconds off the time.
Despite this tumble in the final stages, Rovanpera still held a 38.4 second lead over his teammate, Elfyn Evans, who remained in second-place.
Despite Hyundai’s best efforts, Ott Tanak could only manage to finish on the final step of the podium. As the sport arrived into the power stage, Tanak was over a minute off the pace of Rovanpera and half-a-minute behind Evans.
As the WRC2 class embarked onto the power stage, the heavens opened and the downpour created a challenge of changeable conditions for the drivers.
Toksport’s Andreas Mikkelsen topped the topped the timing boards after he was one of the first drivers to complete the course. Of which a couple of the WRC drivers failed to beat the Norwegian’s time, such as; Solberg and M-Sport Ford’s Craig Breen.
However, when the rain had passed by and the course conditions began to improve, the Rally1 cars began to set faster times. Rovanpera was one of those drivers and the Finn set the fastest time on the board to take home the maximum amount of points.
Podium:
- Kalle Rovanpera & Jonne Halttunen, Toyota
- Elfyn Evans & Scott Martin, Toyota (+1:00.9)
- Ott Tanak & Martin Järveoja, Hyundai (+1:55.7)
That’s all for the article: WRC Rally Estonia: Kalle Rovanpera dominates the weekend to win! What was your favourite part of the rally weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC Rally Estonia: Kalle Rovanpera remains top on Saturday
- WRC Rally Estonia 2022: Kalle Rovanpera tops out Friday
- Day Three: Kalle Rovanpera wins in Rally Sweden
- Day Two: Toyota Kalle Rovanpera on top in Rally Sweden
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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.
