Motorsports
The WRC is now part of the Rovanpera phenomenon
Cale Rovanpera excelled in round four of this year’s WRC as he overcame the odds of Rally Portugal against Sebastian Leb and Sebastian Oze to take first place.
The planted stones and hard soil of the Portugal Rally – round 4 of this year’s WRC – was reminiscent of an ancient Acropolis. The two most successful drivers in rallying history, Sebastian Leb and Sebastian Ozier, fell, fell and went off the road, as did most of the factory staff – but not Cale Rovanpera.
But most importantly, Calais had no such problems despite starting first in the special routes on the first day, Friday (20/5). If there is one dirt rally where Leb and Ozier won such impressive dirt races first in the era of their absolute dominance – due to their points advantage – it is minimal.
Starting from the first position on the ground causes a lot of delay for the champion, who slips on the tortuous road, in addition to cleaning his surface for those who follow. But such was Rovanpera’s wisdom and driving ability in Friday’s challenge that he spent the night in stage one just 13 seconds behind Elfin Evans – who finally made his first good rally of the year worthy of his skills.
However, Rovanpera’s rise to a different – already – level of maturity that separates only the very fast riders from the champions proved itself the next morning on the Amarade Special Route – the biggest of the race. At 37.24 km, Calais lost 8.2 seconds, but this loss was very well calculated and considered.
As he stepped onto the edge of Pirelli’s damaged, soft, preheated softies, the time lost by the Finn seemed impossibly short. It was a masterful driving demonstration, as one would expect from much more experienced drivers. But it was achieved by a 22-year-old who, just a few years earlier, was “the Finnish teenager who will make WRC history”. And now he started it.
In the rain on Saturday afternoon (21/5), Calais took the lead from his Toyota Evans counterpart with a lightning performance and won the second round of the great Amarante, finishing 5.7” overnight. And on Sunday morning at ED Felgueira he showed with a brilliant time that he is simply invincible.
All this at a time when, one after another, the great champions and the fastest WRC works were breaking their wheels and ripping their tires as the grooves of the Specials deepened, reaching deep into the planted rocks.
Significantly, the two legends Sebastian, Leb and Ozier were among them. Leb hit a wall in the 5th Division with a rare driving error in his second race in the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 – having just finished first overall in the previous race.
Ozier, who had finished only third after Leb’s departure as he didn’t immediately climb to a top pace with the Yaris Rally1, couldn’t avoid back-to-back fights in the same number of specials on Friday afternoon. And since he only had a spare tire, he had to retire.
The next day, the two Frenchmen returned but left again – Ozier after leaving ED11 (when he was distracted by a reference to the hybrid system) and Leb due to loss of engine power from the Puma R1. So their spectacular fight to win Monte in Portugal was not repeated, although they were very weak for it.
Aside from Rovanpera and Evans, the only other two drivers to avoid the problems encountered on the tough Iberian gravel roads were Hyundai’s Danny Sordo and Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta. They battled it out for 3rd place, with the experienced Spaniard the ultimate winner.
Hyundai stars Thunder Neville and Ott Tanak finished 2nd overall on Friday before being stopped by a half-axle problem and many problems with the aerodynamics of the i20 N Rally1’s muzzle. The Estonian was fourth on Friday before two fights saw him drop to 10th. But the main problem was different: with the Hyundai i20 N Rally1, as Tanak said, “everything has to change”.
M-Sport’s Craig Brin, Adrien Formo and Gus Greensmith had similar issues. The first actually had a problem every day: crash on Friday, wrong choice of tires on Saturday and problematic brakes on Sunday.
Cale Rovanpera had none of that, however, despite his tremendous pace that gave him his 3rd consecutive win this year after Sweden and Croatia in 4 games. The Finn won the WRC 50th anniversary race as well as the first dirt race of the Rally1 hybrid era.
He’s 46 points ahead of Thierry Neville at the top of the table and already – nine games before the season finale – looks the undisputed favorite to win this year’s first world title.
If Calais stays in the ‘zone’, in that magical psyche of rally drivers where absolute confidence, total freedom from stress, driving perfection and speed are beyond what seems possible, then the season can unfold like so many times past the same “Zone” was someone named Sebastian.
Source: sport 24
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
Match lineup
1
16
20
44
13
61
66
32
10
18
19
1
2
3
6
14
28
8
4
9
10
16
Olimpico Grande Torino
Elia Capril1
79 minutes
Marco Palestra2
66 minutes
Riad Idrissi3
Sebastiano Ruperto6
Alessandro Deiola14
Gabriele Zappa28
79 minutes
michael adpo8
75 minutes
Luca Mazzitelli4
71 minutes
27 minutes
35 minutes
Cicada cicada9
65 minutes
71 minutes
Gianluca Gaetano10
67 minutes
66 minutes
Mateo Prati16
44 minutes
83 minutes
substitute
Giuseppe Ciocchitwenty four
Boris Radunovich31
Alessandro di Pardo18
Nicola Pintustwenty three
66 minutes
91 minutes
adam overt33
83 minutes
andrea cogoni39
marco log20
79 minutes
Nicolo Cavuotitwenty one
71 minutes
Gennaro Borrelli29
71 minutes
leonardo pavoletti30
79 minutes
93 minutes
Yael Trepey37
75 minutes
sebastian esposito94
67 minutes
66 minutes
coach
Marco Baroni
Fabio Pisacan
Hello. Welcome to the live narration of the Serie A round 17 soccer match between Torino and Cagliari. We bring you the results from Sportish, including minute-by-minute coverage, previews, lineups, the best plays and goals of the match, and all the post-match reaction.
Turin vs Cagliari match schedule and where it will be broadcast on TV
The match will be held on Saturday, December 27, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. At Olimpico Grande Torino. Enjoy the best live football on the Sportish website.
Turin – Cagliari | Series A
Source: Mundo Deportivo
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
Motorsports
A king was born on Boxing Day: Amorim’s United fielded four defenders for the first time
There was only one Premier League game, held on Friday December 26th, the traditional Boxing Day, but it was a very good match for Manchester United fans who have experienced so much disappointment of late. A 1-0 win against Newcastle was a relief for the Old Trafford side.
But it was more than that. Ruben Amorim, unwilling to change his philosophy despite his poor results, played with four players in defense for the first time at United.
United have changed in other ways as well. They won with a possession rate of 33.4%, the lowest of any Red Devils team this season. This was also the lowest since January 2023, when they scored 29.4 per cent in the win over Manchester City. And United had nine shots on goal compared to 16 for the Magpies.
Patrick Dorg’s first goal as a Manchester United player and his second “clean sheet” of the season opened the door to an unpretty but essential victory for Amorim’s side. Amorim admitted it was one of his “most satisfying” wins since taking charge of United. “We are suffering together. If we always have this spirit, we will win many games,” added the Portuguese coach. And all this happened without United football’s most influential player, Bruno Fernandes, missing out due to injury. Amorim replaced the Portuguese midfielder with Uruguayan Manuel Ugarte.
Source: Mundo Deportivo
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
Match lineup
40
27
14
16
39
5
10
twenty two
9
7
17
43
65
26
5
15
2
8
27
10
20
44
Ennio Tardini
85 minutes
David de Gea43
Fabiano Parisi65
75 minutes
Mattia Viti26
45 minutes
93 minutes
Marine Pongrac5
92 minutes
19 minutes
Pietro Comuzzo15
85 minutes
dodo2
80 minutes
Rolando Mandragora8
21 minutes
62 minutes
47 minutes
Cher N’Dour27
75 minutes
93 minutes
Albert Gudamson10
67 minutes
Moise Keene20
67 minutes
Nicolo Fagioli44
substitute
Luca Rezzellini1
Tommaso Martinelli30
robin gosenstwenty one
75 minutes
Eman Cospotwenty three
Niccolo Fortini29
45 minutes
eddie quadio60
85 minutes
67 minutes
Simon Soum7
75 minutes
67 minutes
hans nicorossi caviglia14
Edin Dzeko9
80 minutes
Roberto Piccoli91
62 minutes
93 minutes
Christian Kouame99
93 minutes
coach
carlos cuesta
Paolo Vanoli
Hello. Welcome to the live narration of the Parma vs. Fiorentina soccer match on Matchday 17 of Serie A. Sportish brings you minute-by-minute coverage, previews, lineups, the best plays and goals of the match, and results including all the post-match reactions.
Parma vs Fiorentina match schedule and TV locations
The match will take place on Saturday, December 27, 2025 at 12:30 at the Ennio Tardini. Enjoy the best live football on the Sportish website.
Parma – Fiorentina | Series A
Source: Mundo Deportivo
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.
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