WRC Poland: Rovanpera seals stunning win after last-minute call up
Kalle Rovanpera sealed one of the finest victories of his World Rally Championship career at Rally Poland after overcoming limited preparation as last-minute stand-in for Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier.
Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen won eight of the 19 gravel stages on the way to completing a remarkable victory by 28.3s from Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria secured their third WRC podium of the season in third, 42.3s behind.
Having scaled back to a part-time programme for 2024, reigning world champion Rovanpera was servicing his jet ski when he received the call-up to fly to Poland following the withdrawal of Ogier, who was ruled out of the event following a road traffic accident conducting the recce on Tuesday.
As a result, the Finn headed Poland having not completed any preparation for the rally and was given special dispensation to undergo a rushed recce of the stages that was completed hours before the opening test.
While frustrated and sometimes wary of attacking on the stages through first passes, Rovanpera starred in the second run through stages to end a heavily interrupted Friday, blighted by spectator-controlling issues on Poland’s return to the WRC for the first time since 2017, only 1.8s adrift of the rally lead. This was held by Hyundai’s fast-starting Andreas Mikkelsen, who picked up his first stage win since Wales Rally GB 2019.
Organisers were forced to cancel stages three and seven, while stage six was briefly red-flagged. The action was taken due a minority of the huge number of fans that flocked to the stages standing in dangerous locations.
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Police were redeployed to the forestry areas where the issues were occurring on Saturday, which appeared to solve the issue as the day ran with only one brief stoppage.
Only 7.7s covered the top five entering the day, with Evans two seconds behind Mikkelsen but ahead of Fourmaux and impressive Rally1 debutant Martins Sesks, who ran as high as second in a non-hybrid M-Sport Ford Puma. Championship leader Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, disadvantaged by opening the road, was seventh behind Gregoire Munster (M-Sport).
Rovanpera claimed the rally lead on stage 10, before going on to win six of the seven stages to open up a 9.4s lead over Mikkelsen heading into the final day. Evans was third, 16.1s adrift, having run as high as second before suffering a right-rear tyre delamination in stage 13.
Rovanpera drove smartly across Sunday’s final four stages, which he had expressed the most concern about, to secure an impressive second win of the year following March’s triumph in Kenya.
But Mikkelsen’s impressive performance on his first gravel start in a Rally1 car unravelled when he hit a bank in stage 16 that knocked his right-rear tyre off the rim, costing the Norwegian 54.7s. He eventually finished the rally in sixth position, behind Sesks.
This promoted Evans back to second, which he held until the finish despite a difficult showing in the Power Stage. He secured 16 points to cut the gap to championship leader Neuville to 15 points.
Fourmaux enjoyed a solid run throughout the rally to claim his third career WRC podium, matching his previous best results in Sweden and Kenya.
Neuville finished fourth overall [+1m10.8s] but could only score 14 points after finishing fifth on Saturday, fifth in the Sunday classification and first on the Power Stage.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport
Having been forced to retire his Hyundai on Friday after an unavoidable collision with a deer, rally favourite Ott Tanak rejoined the fray on Saturday. But Hyundai opted to withdraw Tanak on Saturday afternoon, since he was out of the running for the first tranche of points, and allow him to focus on the Super Sunday points. It proved to be an inspired call as the Estonian secured 11 points for topping the Sunday classification and placing second in the Power Stage.
As a result, Tanak’s haul from running only eight stages has left the 2019 champion 21 points behind leader Neuville.
Munster, who showed flashes of speed, secured seventh by finishing 8.7s ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta.
Toyota protege Sami Pajari who took the WRC2 class win from Oliver Solberg, the pair completing the top 10 overall.