Kalle Rovanperä reclaims victory in Rally Croatia that was already thought lost and is now “the man to beat “
for his team boss.
The 2022 Rally Croatia will perhaps go down in the history of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as the event in which rally talent Kalle Rovanperä laid down his masterpiece. The Finn, who is only 21 years old, showed nerves of steel on Sunday and took back a victory from Hyundai driver Ott Tänak on the power stage that not only he had thought had been lost long ago.
And in doing so, really made his team boss Jari-Matti Latvala gush. “He is a prodigy”,
“I didn’t think he could win the stage and the rally. On paper Tänak had the better tyres, we were sure he would win. I don’t know where he got that pace from. I don’t have words to describe this drive,” said Latalva.
Rovanperä dominates from the start
In wet and difficult conditions, Rovanperä, who was allowed to open the special stages as WRC leader after his victory in Rally Sweden, had dominated Rally Croatia from the start. Even a puncture, which cost him 54 seconds on the eleventh special stage on Saturday, did not stop the young Finn.
Before the last two special stages, he had a 28.4 second lead over Tänak, victory seemed to be a formality. But then Tänak pulled a trump card in the form of soft dry tyres, and after a heavy rain shower poured down on the roads of the penultimate special stage, the Hyundai driver’s poker seemed to work.
Tänak drove almost half a minute faster than Rovanperä on the softer tyres and suddenly had a 1.4 second lead over the Finn. And seemed to have a clear advantage for the power stage with the soft tyres as well.
“You must never give up “
“I knew Ott had the soft tyres and when I saw the pictures from the power stage, how dirty it was, I was quite sure it would be difficult to beat him,” said Rovanperä. But instead of securing second place with an eye on his own WRC lead and Tänak’s weak start to the season, Rovanperä attacked in the power stage.
“But then I decided to try anyway, because you should never give up,” says the Finn. And this attitude was rewarded. Despite the supposedly worse tyres, Rovanperä drove 5.6 seconds faster than Tänak and thus not only took victory in the rally, but also won the power stage, taking home the maximum score of 30.
“That was certainly one of the toughest weekends,” said Rovanperä. “The conditions were really difficult, everyone had problems. We had the puncture yesterday and lost a lot of time today because of the tyre choice. But to go full throttle until the last corner and then win was nice.”
For team boss Latvala, the strength of his protégé’s nerves shows “that he is a real contender for the World Rally Championship. He has matured so quickly and already this year he is the man to beat in the championship. When I was his age, nobody was driving at this level.” In the WRC standings, Rovanperä already has 29 points after three of 13 rallies, more than one win ahead of Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville.
