Red Bull Motorsports
WRC
Kalle Rovanperä keeps it in the family with Rally Sweden win to match dad's
Toyota's young star Kalle Rovanperä follows in his father's footsteps to win Rally Sweden, 21 years down the road from his dad's success, and take control of the World Rally Championship chase.
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Twenty-one years ago, Harri Rovanperä could have had no idea of what would be coming. The likeable Finn had broken his WRC duck and won Rally Sweden – a story to tell his four-month old son waiting at home in Jyväskylä. Fast forward a generation and it's that same son – the now 21-year-old Kalle Rovanperä – who's taking Sweden by storm.
Like father, like son…
"I don’t know, I don’t know," smiled Rovanperä Sr. "Kalle is maybe different. He's already got three wins – this is two more than me. Honestly, he a 21-year-old who's already 30! He's so mature and so focused on what he's doing. He's a different generation.
"But, nice story anyway. When I was winning Sweden [in 2001] I didn’t think I would be talking so much about this rally 21 years later."
Rovanperä was masterful on the snowy, frozen Swedish stages
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
How did Rovanperä do it?
Coming into this event, Rovanperä wasn’t quite the rank outsider, but he wasn't given too much of a chance. Sitting third in the championship table after last month's Rallye Monte-Carlo, the 21-year-old was running first on the road – don't forget, round one winner and runner-up Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier had already decided to skip round two.
Rovanperä doesn't really go in for mind games, but he was definitely playing down his chances of victory after the northern city of Umeå was blanketed by heavy snowfall in recent weeks.
Craig Breen, the man second into Friday's stages, put it better than anybody. "How many Montes have Loeb and Ogier won between them?” he asked, rhetorically. "And how many Swedens?"
Thierry Neuville was the surprise leader after Friday's stages
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
We were having a couple of moments on the brakes, but we got away with it
The answer is 16 and four.
By way of an explanation, Breen added: "That tells you all you need to know about what it's like to win Monte and then go first on the road in Sweden."
The difference for Rovanperä, it appeared, was the conditions. When the temperatures rose to around freezing point and rain started to fall, it froze immediately onto the chilly roads. That helped him. It meant there was less loose snow to shovel out of the way, making the roads faster for those following. Even better, the ice base now gave his Pirelli studs something more substantial to get hold of.
Friday wasn't all about the Yaris Rally1 star though. Both Rovanperä and Evans were forced to give best to Hyundai man Thierry Neuville, who forced his way to the front in an i20 N Rally1 that had been miles off the pace in the French Alps. "I think we gave the team something to smile about," grinned the early leader.
But when Rovanperä barged his way by on Saturday morning's opener, there was nothing to stop the Finn from flying to the finish.
Evans was 8.3 seconds down in second place going into the final day, but a spin, a meeting with a snowbank and a hybrid-related issue forced the Welshman out.
Like his father, Rovanperä’s not a man of many words. Typically, he let his fans do much of the celebrating at the finish.
"It's been a good weekend," he offered, slightly bashfully. “Monte wasn’t so easy with this car, so it’s really good to come here and win – especially after being first on the road on Friday. It was a shame for Elfyn this morning, that was a nice fight, but this is good for the championship and good for Toyota."
Elfyn Evans looked set for the podium until he hit trouble on the final day
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
And the 21-year-old thing?
"Yes," he grinned. It's nice to win the same one as my dad."
Rovanperä now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 14 points, while Toyota has leapfrogged M-Sport Ford to top the teams' race by 24.
Toyota's cause was helped no end by an exceptional return to the Japanese factory team for Esapekka Lappi. The Finn, who hasn't driven a works-run car at the highest level for more than a year, was third, with fellow Yaris man Takamoto Katsuta a strong fourth.
Takamoto Katsuta was an impressive 4th at the finish
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Hyundai revival
One stage was all it took for the relief to break out in the Korean camp. After a dire Monte, where only one i20 N Rally1 made the finish, the top four places after Rally Sweden SS1 were packed with three Hyundais and Neuville leading.
The Belgian remained out front on Friday night, but when he couldn't dial the car into the weekend's roads, he was swept aside by Rovanperä. Third place looked to be beckoning until Evans's early bath. Neuville was delighted with second.
"I had a good feeling on Friday, but it wasn’t quite the same on Saturday and Sunday," he said. "It was a bit more complicated. I was missing some confidence and, for sure, we were having a couple of moments on the brakes, but we got away with it and it's fantastic to bring this result for the team."
Neuville's team-mate Oliver Solberg rounded out the top six, with Ott Tänak's i20 ruled out on day one by a freak hybrid problem. The car was running without fault, but the car’s HV safety light turned from green to red and the rules state you have to stop if that happens.
M-Sport’s hopes of maintaining its championship lead went south on stage two, when Craig Breen dropped his Puma in a snowbank, but Gus Greensmith was a strong fifth despite hybrid and transmission issues.
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