WRC: Rovanpera OUT of Rally Finland
5th August 2023Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera has officially retired from his home event, Rally Finland after the Finnish driver and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen rolled out 11.1km into the second pass of Myhinpää.
Finland’s World Rally Championship defending champion, Rovanpera, saw his chances to obtain a maiden home rally victory roll out across the Finnish scenery as he crashed out of the event on Friday afternoon. It has been made official now that Rovanpera will not restart in Finland as the damage sustained to his Yaris is too much for the team to repair.
Although Rovanpera did not take the rally lead straight away, at the opening Harju super-special stage, he take manage to snatch it away from the clutches of M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak after the first stage on Friday morning. From there the young world champion looked to be untouchable.
However, 11km into the Myhinpää 2 stage (SS8), the reigning world champion snagged his rear-right tyre into a ditch which collided with part of the scenery. This launched the #69 Toyota Yaris up into the air and into a roll. Thankfully, Rovanpera and Halttunen were okay after the incident and signalled that they were okay.
When the Yaris returned to the service park in Jyväskylä, Finland, the mechanics went to work overnight to fix the damaged car in a bid to get the defending world champion back out onto the road. However, the Toyota team were not able to fix the car and has since retired the Finnish pair from the rally.
On social media, the team posted:
“In the service of car #69 it was found that the damage to the chassis was too much to repair and we unfortunately have to retire it from the event.”
Rovanpera soon posted on social media himself, sharing the heartbreaking news that he cannot continue on in his home event. The 2022 World Champion said:
“Sadly the chassis is too badly damaged and we are forced to retire. Of course a massive disappointed to what happened, but it is what it is. Thanks for the support – we will be back”
That’s all for the article; WRC: Rovanpera OUT of Rally Finland!
Read more WRC here:
- Evans snatches WRC Rally Finland lead as Rovanpera rolls out
- Disaster for M-Sport Ford as Tanak retires from Rally Finland
- Tanak fastest in WRC Rally Finland opener
- WRC 2023 Rally Finland: Preview
- WRC: Kalle Rovanpera secures third consecutive rally win in Estonia
- Rally Estonia: Rovanpera takes control of rally 3-seconds ahead of Neuville
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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.
