Kalle Rovanperä’s championship hunt will continue next weekend, when the World Rally Championship points will be raced in New Zealand.
Kalle Rovanperä plows the way for others again on Friday, but the rainy weather can even bring an advantage to the situation. Vesa Pöppönen / All Over Press
Toyota driver Rovanperä has a solid 53-point lead over Hyundai in the World Series To Ott Tänak before the last three races. However, Tänak has caught Rovanperä considerably in the last couple of races, where the Finnish driver has fallen into mistakes.
In the New Zealand gravel rally on his way back to the World Series, Rovanperä should collect eight points more than Tänak, so that he could celebrate the world championship already on Sunday. The task is not easy, but not impossible either.
At Friday’s special tests, Rovanperä will again have to drive as the first car. There is a lot of loose gravel to be plowed on the rally tracks in New Zealand, but the top driver of the World Series may get a little relief in his work.
According to the latest forecasts, rain has been promised around Auckland for Thursday and Friday. This would mean that there would not be so much harm in the first starting point. In wet weather, the top car might even gain an advantage.
– New Zealand is once again a really difficult race to open the way. The first day there, we ride the ruts again. We’ll see how difficult it is, Rovanperä talked after the last World Cup competition.
– Hopefully we can get the car in such condition that we could race against Tänak.
Rovanperä traveled to New Zealand in good time. At the weekend, Rovanperä was able to relax a little with his teammates Takamoto Katsuta with as they hopped aboard a helicopter and flew to Waiheke Island.
– It’s nice to relax a couple of days before the race – especially here, because it takes a few days to get used to the time difference, Rovanperä said in a video published by the Toyota WRC team.
Toyota drivers competed against each other in a wire slide.
– “Taka” took a false start both times, which is why it was not quite even, Rovanperä said.
– I didn’t take a false start, I started at the right time. Kalle was a little sleepy, Katsuta threw a counter ball.
The World Rally Championship in New Zealand starts on Thursday morning Finnish time, when a public special stage is run in Auckland.
You can watch a video of Rovanperä and Katsuta’s mood from the tweet below or from this link.