After securing back-to-back world titles in 2022 and 2023, the Finn opted for something of a sabbatical in 2024, contesting only seven rounds so far in a GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID.
Rovanperä’s Rally Chile Bio Bío victory on Sunday marked his fourth triumph of the season, with the other three events also showing strong potential for him and co-driver Jonne Halttunen before crashes intervened. When asked if he felt he had ticked all the boxes as a part-time driver, the 23-year-old was inclined to agree.
“Pretty much,” Rovanperä responded. “I think we have been leading every rally where we have been driving [this year]. In Finland we couldn’t do anything, but yeah, in Sweden and Portugal I would have wanted to fight for the win. Until [the crashes], the speed was there.
“Of course, it’s nice to see that we could [have the speed to] win every rally we started, at least so far, and four wins and good points for the team is not so bad.
He added: “It’s always a bit better when you are not really doing it full-time. You can always relax a bit more between rallies.”
Foggy and damp conditions made this year’s Chilean round one of the toughest of the season, with visibility near-zero on some stages high in the mountains. Rovanperä initially struggled but, after labeling Friday’s stages a disaster, he fought back on Saturday afternoon to overtake team-mate Elfyn Evans and seize the lead.
“Friday’s stages were really different to Saturday and Sunday,” he told WRC.com, “so I was expecting that on Saturday and Sunday I was going to be a bit more comfortable. And, of course, the weather played a big part in that – we could make bigger time gaps than the others and really try to be fast in the difficult conditions.”
While Evans, running last of the top-tier drivers on the road on Saturday, arguably faced the worst of the fog, Rovanperä didn’t feel he benefited from any luck in the conditions. “I didn’t feel I took any big, big risks,” he said. “Of course you need to push and keep going, even in the really difficult conditions, but I didn’t feel anything too bad. For sure, it was a really clever drive.”
Rovanperä has not entered next month’s Central European Rally (17 – 20 October), but he could still make one more appearance this year at FORUM8 Rally Japan, the season finale. The entry list for the Aichi-based event will be published on Monday 28 October.
Japan
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Turkey