Rovanpera beats Evans and Tanak to secure Rally Chile WRC win

Rovanpera beats Evans and Tanak to secure Rally Chile WRC win

30th September 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera took home the Rally Chile Bio Bio victory after conquering challenging conditions across the weekend, beating teammate Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak. 

Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Rovanpera stood victorious in Chile as he mastered heavy fog and challenging conditions across the weekend, beating Evans to victory. On Saturday, he took the lead over Evans who had led most of the rally in very low visibility.

Four stages lined up the final day of action, a two-stage loop consisting of Laraquete and Bio Bio. However, many drivers faced challenges on the first run of Bio Bio as heavy fog fell onto the stage making visibility very difficult.

However, drivers had more problems on the penultimate stage of the weekend after the fog dissipated. 

Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi lost another front bumper after he originally lost it on Saturday. This came from hitting a hillbank on a right-hand corner, on the penultimate stage when his car hooked up into a rut, sending it into the bank. He later retired. 

M-Sport Ford’s Martins Sesks lost his rear wing as he crossed over to the flying finish, surprisingly coming off on its own accord. However, Sesks was not aware of this until he was informed in the post-stage interview. 

How the final day ended… 

Rovanpera took victory as the fastest driver in Chile with an overall time of x to give the Finnish driver his fourth win of the season. He was closely followed by teammate Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s Ott Tanak who rounded out the top three, in second and third. 

Hyundai’s championship leader Theirry Neuville was best of the rest in fourth as M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five. 

Sami Pajari, in his Toyota Rally1 Yaris, completed the session as Takamoto Katsuta’s replacement for the event and occupied sixth by the end. M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster completed the WRC Rally1 contenders down in seventh. 

Yohan Rossell and Nikolay Gryazin completed the event, in WRC2 with a 1-2 finish in eighth and ninth, and provided the team – DG Sport Compétition – with the team’s championship.

Gus Greensmith completed the WRC2 top three but stood 10th fastest overall. The Briton lost time in the final stage due to a late half-spin on the power stage. 

Of the remaining WRC Rally1 contenders, Martins Sesks finished 24th in the order in his hybrid-less Ford Puma whilst Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier finished 36th – having retired on Saturday.

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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.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC
TagsChile Kalle Rovanpera Rally Chile Rally Chile Bio Bio Sebastien Ogier WRC

About the author

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.

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