How Rovanpera secured the title in New Zealand

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera has clenched the world title in New Zealand to become the sport’s youngest-ever world champion, with two rounds left to go; Spain and Japan.

How Rovanpera secured the title in New Zealand

Day One

Only one super-special stage lined up the opening day of the weekend with the Pukekawa Auckland Domain, of which Rovanpera’s championship rival, Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, took top honors. At the same time, Toyota’s championship leader got his weekend off to a poor start after a slight mistake in the opening donut section which placed the Finn sixth in the timing boards.

Day Two

After a sixth-place finish to the opening day, and stage of the weekend, the champion-elect didn’t improve all that much in the following morning. Rovanpera continued to struggle to traction through the first loop of the second day, despite a third place finish in SS3: Te Akau South 1.

Tanak put in a worthy fight to make Rovanpera’s championship a difficult possibility as the Estonian driver maintained his position at the top of the timing board, at the end of the day.

Rovanpera finally secured his first stage-win of the weekend, on SS6: Te Akau South 2. The championship leader went 5.6 seconds faster than his title-rival, Tanak, in the stage. However, Hyundai’s championship contender responded immediately with a stage win in SS7.

At the end of the day, the Finnish driver managed to work his back up to fourth place in the overall times while Tanak topped the timing boards, 0.2 seconds ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.

Day Three

In Rovanpera’s championship journey, the final half of the weekend was made slightly easier after both Tanak and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville were handed time penalties for exceeding the allowed amount of energy – from the new hybrid boost systems.

However, Tanak was slapped with an additional 10-second penalty for another offence regarding the boost systems.

Shortly after, Rovanpera was slapped with his own five-second time penalty for the same reason. While the Finn’s teammate, Sebastian Ogier, was given a 10-second penalty for checking in a minute late.

Rovanpera picked up his first stage-win of the day, on Stage Nine, and was promoted into the rally lead, 4.6 seconds ahead of his championship rival. The Toyota’s lead was soon solidified with two successive stage wins in both SS11 and SS12.

By the end of the penultimate day, the champion-elect had established a healthy 46.4-second lead over his championship rival, Tanak, who had fallen down to third place. Ogier separated the two, as the sport entered its final day, 29-seconds off the pace of Rovanpera.

Kalle Rovanpera (FIN) of team Toyota Gazoo Racing celebrates on the podium after winning their maiden FIA World Rally Championship title in Auckland, New Zealand on 2.10.2022 // Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

Day Four

In the first handful of stages, on the final day of the weekend, Rovanpera looked to put in a comfortable – yet competitive and unbeatable – stage time to maintain his lead out in front.

After the opening stage of the day, the Finn looked to be undeterred about the potential feat that was infront of him. Speaking immediately after SS14 – Whitford Forest: Te Maraunga Waiho 1, Rovanpera said:

“I just tried to have a normal, slow, pace to save the tire a bit.”

Although Tanak managed to secure a stage win on SS15: Jacks Ridge Haunui 1, it did little to help keep his championship hopes alive.

In the bulk of the rally, Rovanpera had secured the win but the Wolf Power Stage still lay ahead. As the last man on the stage, the champion-elect was given the calculations: he had to finish fourth or higher to secure the title.

With that calculation, Rovanpera delivered and exceeded that requirement. Despite a minimum fourth place finish, the Finnish driver ended his championship-winning journey at the top of the stage timing boards of the Wolf Power Stage and was crowned the 2022 World Champion.

That’s all for the article: How Rovanpera secured the title in New Zealand! What was your favourite moment of Rovanpera’s championship-winning season, at the moment? Let us know in the comments!

Read more WRC here:

• WRC Rally New Zealand – Day 3: Rovanpera clears out front after Greensmith crash
• WRC Rally New Zealand – Day 2: Tanak top 0.2s ahead of Evans
• WRC2 Rally New Zealand: Paddon sets the pace in opening stage
• WRC Rally New Zealand: Tanak on top for opening stage
• EKO Acropolis Rally Greece: Preview

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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.