Rovanpera wins Rally Greece ahead of title rival Evans
10th September 2023Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera has secured the Acropolis Rally Greece win as his teammate Eflyn Evans outpaced Hyundai’s Daniel Sordo to keep his championship hopes alive.
While Rovanpera cruised towards the Wolf Power Stage, when the final stage arrived: the Finnish driver went for it – even though the championship leader did not need to. Despite this, it remained a storming drive for the reigning champion on the 15th – and final – Special Stage: Grammeni 2.
The Finnish driver stormed to the power stage’s finish line with 2.5 seconds over Evan’s best time – who had briefly led the final stage’s timing boards.
After he celebrated the rally win with co-driver Jonne Halttunen, Rovanpera said:
“Starting first and finishing first is quite nice, a clever drive and still a good push here. A big thank you to the team, the car is super strong, it’s really fast and everything – we can always do a good job. I really for it but that’s how we always do.”
The #69 Toyota Yaris had a mixed-bag experience in Greece this season. Rovanpera led the field on Thursday night at the EKO Super Special Stage, in Athens with three-tenths of a second over Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi.
However, he quickly lost the lead on Friday to fellow Hyundai competitor and championship rival, Thierry Neuville. At the same time, Rovanpera’s teammate Sebastien Ogier moved up to second which dropped the reigning champion to third, by the end of the second day.
Following Neuville and Ogier’s untimely misfortunes, with suspension damage for both drivers on Saturday, Rovanpera was promoted back into the lead. From there, the Finn was never really under any pressure from his fellow teammate, Evans who sat over two minutes behind.
On the final day of the weekend, Rovanpera had enough time in the bank to lose nearly a minute in rally time to Evans as he cruised towards the Wolf Power Stage.
With both the rally and Wolf Power Stage win under his belt, Rovanpera has now taken maximum points (30) and will head to Chile with a 33-point lead over his closest championship rival, Evans.
Three rounds remain of the 2023 campaign and a total of 90 points is still available for the title to be decided. The WRC will return from September 28 to October 1, 2023, for the WRC Rally Chile Bio Bío.
That’s all for the article; Rovanpera wins Rally Greece ahead of title rival Evans!
Read more WRC here:
- Neuville and Ogier take damage in Rally Greece as Rovanpera takes lead
- Neuville remains just ahead of Ogier after Day 2 in Rally Greece
- Rovanpera wins new Rally Greece super special stage in Athens
- Mikkelsen leads WRC2 after opening solo stage in Rally Greece
- WRC Rally Greece: Shakedown cancelled, who can eat into Rovapera’s lead
- Evans secures Rally Finland victory comfortably ahead of Neuville
Give us a follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from the world of Motorsport! You can also support us on Patreon or on our website!
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.
