WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia
23rd July 2023Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera has secured his third consecutive win in Estonia despite pressure from the Hyundai duo of Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi.
Rovanpera has secured his is the Finnish driver’s second win of the season, following on from his victory in Portugal, the victory marks his third consecutive win on Estonian soil.
As such, this has allowed the Finnish driver to edge out his championship lead over his teammate, Eflyn Evans who sits in second on the driver’s standings.
While the Finnish duo of Rovanpera and his co-driver, Joanne Halttunen, look to be on course to secure their second consecutive championship, their time in Estonia was not all smooth sailing.
Elfyn Evans inherited an early lead on Thursday after M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak was hit by a five-second time penalty for a pre-event engine change. The lead then changed hands to Neuville after the opening round on Friday. It wasn’t until the sixth stage when Rovanpera took over after his first stage wins of the weekend, on SS5 and SS6.
From there, Rovanpera held onto the rally lead with a tight grip and began to edge himself away from Hyundai’s Neuville and Lappi who remained second and third from the seventh stage until the end.
With Rovanpera’s second victory now in hand, this puts the Finnish driver on 170 points in the championship and 55 points ahead of Evans (115 points). The remaining drivers inside the top five are only separated by 17 points with Neuville, Tanak and Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier in third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The next rally will be held in Finland for the ninth round of the championship which will get underway on August 3, 2023, to August 6, 2023.
That’s all for the article; WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia!
Read more WRC here:
- Rally Estonia: Rovanpera takes control of rally 3-seconds ahead of Neuville
- Rally Estonia: Tanak fastest on Thursday opener despite penalty
- Tanak to start Rally Estonia with five-minute penalty
- WRC2: Greensmith secures win in Portugal after Solberg penalty
- Rally Portugal: Solberg loses WRC2 lead after slapped with penalty
- WRC Rally Portugal: Rovanpera dominates Saturday to close in on first 2023 win
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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.
