World Rally Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera has welcomed the opportunity to “rest and recover” ahead of this weekend’s Acropolis Rally in Greece – an event he won at the first time of asking back in 2021.
Last month, he crashed out of his home event – Secto Rally Finland – whilst leading from the second GR Yaris Rally1 of Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans.
The shunt happened on the opening day as the pair battled for supremacy, approximately 11.1 kilometres into the ‘Myhinpää 2’ test. The impact was so severe that it flipped the Finn’s supermini onto its roof and left the tail-gate and chassis badly damaged.
Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen managed to extract themselves from the car, and although initial scans suggested they were both OK, it later emerged that was in fact not the case.
Alongside his World Rally Championship commitments this year, Rovanpera has been appearing at rounds of the European Drift Masters Series. However, he was forced to sit it out after revealing on social media that he had hurt his ribs and his back, with the pain proving too great during a pre-event test.
However, with a prolonged break between Finland and Greece, the reigning World Champion appears to be well on the mend and keen to cement his lead in the standings over Evans and a resurgent Thierry Neuville in third.
“It has been good to have a small break after Rally Finland and a chance to rest and recover before Greece,” said the 21-year-old, who will run as first car on the road across Friday’s stages.
“The Acropolis is a classic event and we have had some real highs and lows there in the past two years: to win on our first time there in 2021 was really nice, and then last year it was a tough weekend for us [finishing fifteenth].
“I am sure that it won’t be easy this time either as we will be opening the road again on Friday,” he continued, “but together with the team, we have been working to improve for these conditions and we will definitely try our best to score some good points.”
Meanwhile, Toyota Gazoo Racing Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala says the lessons learned from 12 months ago in Greece mean the GR Yaris Rally1 is an altogether different proposition.
Rough events like the Acropolis Rally proved to be its Achilles’ heel in 2021, with Takamoto Katsuta the highest placed Toyota driver on the Lamia-based fixture in sixth.
“We have had a good run of results on recent rallies and we hope to continue that in Greece, but we know just how challenging an event the Acropolis can be,” explained Latvala.
“Last year it was a very difficult rally for our team, but that is motivating us to do better this time, and we have been developing the GR Yaris a lot for rough and dry gravel conditions.”
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