Kalle Rovanperä finished tenth in the sixth round of the Oceania formula series.
Kalle Rovanperä drove the best formula result of his career at the Taupo motor track. Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand
Finland’s blue cross flag flew at the Taupo motor track as the Oceania regional formula series continued on Saturday.
Kalle Rovanperä finished 16th in the first race of the day. The eight best went to the second race of the weekend in the reverse order of the first race, but the rule did not affect the Finn.
Rovanperä took the start on the safe side, and started observing. He moved up to 15th in the second round and continued to fight Sebastian Manson behind the back.
In the Oceania regional formula series, driving is exceptionally precise. Nobody wants to fiddle with expensive equipment.
In the seventh round of Yevan David and Manson’s difficulties helped Rovanperä to rise to 13th place in the race, but the difference to the rider in front Nolan to Allaer was more than three seconds.
In clean air, however, the Finn showed excellent speed and caught Allaer in just a few laps, and at the same time also pushed past the Yankee.
At the same time, a teammate Jin Nakamura had to get a new front wing from the pit, which also directly helped Rovanperä.
For the rest of the race, the Finn drove in a safe hole Ricardo Baptista and Trevor LaTourette between. Rovanperä did not want to risk the best formula result of his career and brought a valuable tenth place to his Hitech team.
James Wharton drove to win the race.
– It’s been a challenging couple of weeks, and now I finally got my first win, the Aussie skier said.
On Sunday, the final time trial and two races will be held at the Taupo track.
