Rovanpera’s ‘walk’ after Evans’ surrender

For the Rovanpera family, victory in the Swedish Rally, this year’s 2nd round of the WRC, was quite emotional – because in this race Cale’s father, Harry Rovanpera, had achieved his only victory in the 2001 World Rally Championship.

Now his son Cale Rovanpera has not only claimed his third win in the sport, but has also climbed to the top of the Drivers’ Championship with a 14-point lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neville, who finished second on the podium today ahead of Esapeka Lapi with the third factory Yaris Rally1.

Rovanpera was the protagonist in Friday’s six-man battle for the top spot and finally took the lead from Neville the following morning – as the Belgian fell further behind with problems in the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 hybrid system. The next day the landscape cleared up for victory as Rovanpera and Evans left to claim it.

The two Toyota drivers spent the night with a difference of 8.3” – but it should be over by Sunday morning: Evans was initially penalized 10 seconds for the way he felt on his way out in the final Wanted to put curve on the road last ED Saturday. And then, at the 7th kilometer of today’s first ED16, Wales had to retire.

In particular, he lost control in a long left-hand bend and crashed into the snow wall so hard that the Yaris Rally1 spun on its own axis. It was initially believed that the accident had damaged the engine, but the real reason for Evans to leave – as he later revealed – was a problem with the hybrid system.

Simultaneously, Rovanpera won the first special of the day and after leaving Wales he was 23.9” in the lead, over Neville. After leaving his teammate, he had the luxury of slowing down in the next few specials to conserve his tires in the face of the attack on the final Power Stage.

Victory in this and his 5 points was won by Ott Tanak, who was originally in contention for the win but was forced to leave ED5 on Friday due to a problem in Evans’ hybrid system. The Estonian returned to the fray and achieved the only goal he had left, winning the Power Stage.

Rovanpera scored 4 points in second, while Neville, Takamoto Katsuta and Craig Brin – also out on Friday after being eliminated and on Saturday with a mechanical problem – claimed the remaining 3-2-1 points.

After Evans’ elimination, Neville and Lapi’s battle for second place continued. The Belgian’s contact with the snow and his lack of confidence in the brakes initially reduced his advantage over the Finn to 3.2”, but eventually the Hyundai driver managed to beat Lapi, who finished the third Yaris Rally1 in Sebastian’s games Ozier won’t be attending this year – most of them this year, that is.

Unlike Monte’s triumph over Leb, this race was disastrous for M-Sport Ford. Adding to Brin’s problems, Gus Greenmith lost too much time on Friday with gearbox and hybrid system issues, while Adrien Formo also retired with a mechanical issue in the easy to day one special.

The World Rally Championship will now be on a two-month break, giving teams the opportunity to develop the reliability of their hybrid systems before returning to Rally Croatia on April 21-24.