Kalle Rovanperä has won for the third time in a row in the WRC and gets praise from Elfyn Evans – The Finn now has a 46-point lead over Thierry Neuville
“I have to take my hat off to Kalle [Rovanperä] for winning because he did a great job,” said Elfyn Evans, who was beaten by his Toyota team-mate in the World Rally Championship (WRC) round in Portugal. The decision came on Sunday, where the 21-year-old ultimately took a 15.2 second lead over Evans.
It was Rovanperä’s third win in a row, giving him a full 46-point lead over Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville, who finished fifth in Portugal. Evans is in fifth place, 70 points behind Takamoto Katsuta and Ott Tänak. With his third win in a row, Rovanperä is now the clear title favourite in the 2022 WRC season.
“We got off to a good start in the rally, but he was just too quick towards the end of the weekend,” Evans admits. “Even though I’m unhappy with the result, it’s nice to be back on the podium. We can build on that for sure.” For Evans, it was his first podium result of 2022 after two setbacks in Monte Carlo and Sweden and a fifth place in Croatia.
Rovanperä himself “wasn’t expecting the win at all”, as he had to open the special stages on Friday as championship leader. This was a disadvantage for the Finn, as he was always the first car on the track to blithely clean the tracks for the competition. “But we managed to stay close to the front,” he says. “We always had good pace and a trouble-free rally. “
The 21-year-old is also getting praise from Toyota’s top brass. Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala speaks of “an unexpected victory” for the Finn, who has “grown incredibly quickly” and is “coping very well with the pressure as the leader”. Latvala is very satisfied because of the double victory and Katsuta’s good performance. Only the retirement of eight-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier was the fly in the ointment.
The latter is happy about the good results of his team colleagues. Ogier says: “Congratulations to the team for this fantastic one-two. For myself, it was a difficult weekend as we were unlucky on Friday when we were just closing in on the leaders.” Nevertheless, the veteran has positive things to report: “The kilometres on gravel were valuable and we can see that we have a strong car for gravel. I’m looking forward to the next event with the team.”
Dani Sordo completed the best Hyundai driver WRC podium in Portugal behind the Toyota duo, followed by Katsuta and Neuville. M-Sport suffered a total failure in Portugal, with nine-time WRC champion Sebastien Loeb having an accident while leading and his teammates being dogged by bad luck during the rally. Next stop is the Rally Sardinia in Italy on 2-5 June.
