Kalle Rovanperä has stormed to a dominant Rally Estonia victory for the third year in a row with Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, extending his lead in the FIA World Rally Championship.
Guided by co-driver Jonne Halttunen, Rovanperä (below) once again looked completely at home aboard his GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid on some of the fastest roads in the WRC. He held a narrow lead at the end of Friday despite having to run first on the loose gravel stages, and proved unbeatable thereafter as he pulled clear of the competition.
He recorded a run of 13 consecutive stage wins from Saturday morning until the rally-ending Power Stage on Sunday afternoon, becoming the first driver in 15 years to post such a streak of fastest times on a WRC round.
Quickest in the finale by two seconds, he secured his second win of the season by 52.7s overall and claimed the maximum 30 points to increase his championship lead to 55 points. The victory is his 10th in the WRC in the two years since he became its youngest winner on Rally Estonia 2021.
Elfyn Evans remains second in the drivers’ standings after he and co-driver Scott Martin were second-fastest in the Power Stage and finished fourth overall following a thrilling fight for the final place on the podium with Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) – finishing just 7.3s away. Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston finished seventh overall, only 0.3 seconds shy of a place in the top six. TGR-WRT has increased its manufacturers’ championship lead to 57 points.
Jari-Matti Latvala , Team Principal, said, “Kalle dominated this rally. To start as first car on the road on Friday, be in the lead by the end of the day and then be fastest in every stage on Saturday and Sunday, winning the Power Stage – is just total domination.
“This is probably the strongest rally for him on the calendar, it’s like a home rally to him: it’s the one he loves to drive the most and he took the maximum from it, which is great for his title defence. We also saw a very good fight from Elfyn and he did a strong drive on the Power Stage to be second-fastest, scoring valuable points for himself and also for the manufacturers’ championship where we have increased our lead. Now we look forward to the team’s home rally in Finland in two weeks and hope we can win there too.”
Winner Kalle Rovanperä said, “It is an amazing feeling to achieve our 10th WRC win here in Estonia and to win this rally for the third time in a row. This weekend was something special, winning all the stages from Saturday morning onwards.
“I think we showed our speed and what the car can do quite well, so I’m really happy. With Jonne, I did a good job, driving at this speed without really having any moments, and pushing all the time but still enjoying the driving, which is not always the case in rallying. I felt happy in the car and I was enjoying the stages and the great support we had here.”
Welshman and team-mate Elfyn Evans added, “We were in a pretty intense fight throughout the weekend for the podium places and naturally it’s disappointing not to have made it in the end. We weren’t a million miles away but we just fell a bit short.
“On Friday it took some time to feel comfortable and I think that’s when the majority of the damage was done in terms of our road position for the rest of the rally. Well done to Kalle who was dominant this weekend. It’s hard to be satisfied with our result but we come away with some good points from the Power Stage and from the rally. It’s also a good warm-up for Rally Finland and we’ll work hard over the next week to try and do better there.”
