WRC Rally Finland Preview: Can anyone catch Rovanpera?
4th August 2022The World Rally Championship heads into Finnish territory for the Secto Rally Finland as Toyota’s championship leader Kalle Rovanpera targets a home win this weekend.
Rovanpera leads the championship with 172 points to his name, after five rally wins this season. This puts the Finnish driver 83pts ahead of his closest championship rival, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Wet weather is expected to hit at some point this weekend which could hamper a drivers stage time if they’re unfortunate enough to go out at the wrong time. Estonia’s power stage was a clear example of that.
While Rovanpera drives away with the 2022 title, it is still all to play for in the manufacturer’s table as Toyota lead by 87 points, ahead of Hyundai.
Rovanpera has a big enough of an advantage in the standings to relax slightly for the remainder of the season. The Finn has already racked up five rally victories, out of seven, this season and he failed to score in only one Wolf Power Stage, in Kenya.
The last time a Finn won on home ground was back in 2017, at the hands of Esapekka Lappi. Based on the Toyota drivers current form, Rovanpera seems well equipped to go on to win the event.
However, he will still have fresh memories of when he crashed out, last season. On a high speed section of the course, Rovanpera smashed into a pile of gravel beside the road which ended his chances of a win.
In all, Rovanpera can take it easy and cruise to the 2022 title. However, those words aren’t exactly in any rally drivers vocabulary – especially at their home rally.
The course will be lined along Finland’s forests and lakes so the co-drivers pace notes will have to be accurate and quick to help their drivers succeed. At the same time, the drivers will have to contend with one condition the co-drivers can’t prepare them for: the weather.
Rain is expected to hit the Rally Finland event, at some point this weekend, which will make the low-grip, gravel tracks even harder to navigate.
While the Finnish championship leader will be focused in on securing his home rally, his team will want to gathering a good result from their remaining roster.
Toyota currently lead the manufacturer’s table with 298 points to their name, 87 points more than their closest rivals, Hyundai (on 211pts). This is also correlates with the top four drivers in the standings, it stands;
- Rovanpera, Toyota
- Neuville, Hyundai
- Elfyn Evans, Toyota
- Ott Tanak, Hyundai
While a good, collective, result for Toyota would extend their championship lead, a great result for Hyundai intensify the manufacturer’s championship, with five rallies left on the calendar.
At the other end of the table, at M-Sport Ford, the championship looks to get bleaker and bleaker with every passing rally. Ford are currently third in the team standings, on 156 points – 142pts away from Toyota.
However, if Craig Breen, Gus Greensmith, Adrien Fourmaux and Pierre-Louis Loubet get good results, it could put them in contention – with Hyundai – for second place in the standings. Going into the weekend, Ford are only 55 points away from the South Korean manufacturer.
The four-day event will start on Thursday with the first, super special, stage starting at 6pm BST (8pm local).
For the remaining three days, in British Summer Time, it goes;
Friday –
6am start – SS2
6:54pm finish – SS10
Saturday –
6:08am start – SS11
5:30pm finish – SS18
Sunday –
6:20am start – SS19
12:30pm finish – Wolf Powerstage
That’s all for the article: WRC Rally Finland Preview: Can anyone catch Rovanpera? Who do you think will win this weekend? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- WRC Rally Estonia: Kalle Rovanpera dominates the weekend to win
- 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
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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.
