Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä Paraguay World Championship finally ended with a severe disappointment.
Kalle Rovanperä is still in a good position in the championship. Zumawire / mvphotos
Kalle Rovanperä He still led the race on Saturday night, but then fate was really missing the game for the Finn. Rovanperä suffered a tire break on Saturday night’s second final special stage.
To the Finnish annoyance, the tire breakage happened on Saturday’s longest piece and even before the middle of the clip. Of course, the clock did not like this, and Rovanperä fell from the top six and lost its chances of victory.
At the same time, Rovanperä also came to the finish on Sunday, but the Finn managed to snap still valuable points from Super Sunday and Power Stage. The overall pot rose to 16 World Cup points. Far from perfect – but fortunately nothing catastrophe.
Still, there was a lot to swallow in the disappointment.
– I never have the best feeling when I feel like I’m not at my best. I didn’t get the best of the car, which of course is not the best feeling, Rovanperä said.
– We were still in the battle and the pace was quite well found. But then yesterday came a tire break, and after that we did what we could do to score Sunday, Rovanperä continued.
However, Rovanperä was still in good time on Sunday and grabbed a really valuable World Cup. If the Finn had no good luck on Saturday, then on Sunday, the lucky one was on the Rovanperä side. At least for the weather.
– The weather helped a bit at the end and we scored a good score. So you can’t be too disappointed, Rovanperä said.
However, Sunday of Rovanperä as a whole was heavy. The Finn revealed that he was ill between Saturday and Sunday night.
– I got sore last night and this morning felt really bad. I’m really happy that this is over now. I have no energy now. This day was pretty tough, Rovanperä said.
From the point of view of the World Cup, Rovanperä has not yet lost anything. He is in second place in the drivers’ World Series in second place in Paraguay, who has won his winning teammate Sébastien Ogier with. Each has 189 points as the World Series top continues Elfy’s Evans There are points in 198. So the difference to the top is only nine points. And with four more races left, the difference is completely negligible.
– We are still very close. Only Elfyn has a small lead. So the situation is unchanged, Rovanperä says.
The extraordinarily intense championship battle for the World Rally Championship will continue next time in mid-September in Chile.