Toyota drivers were allowed to fight against each other without team regulations.
Kalle Rovanperä was allowed to fight for the victory until the end. EPA / AOP
Although Toyota was toasting its way to a quadruple victory in the World Rally Championship in Kenya, the team manager Jari-Matti Latvala didn’t go out to give stable orders to his drivers.
Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä were able to race with all their might from victory to the end, even though the risk was out-of-bounds and technical problems in the challenging conditions of Safari.
– Maybe they didn’t really want that, but that fight wasn’t forbidden either. We got to decide that ourselves, Rovanperä revealed after the race Dirtfish– website.
The Finn put the Konkari driver in a really tight spot. Especially on Sunday morning, he seriously attacked the fight for victory with a really challenging 8.33 kilometer special test. Rovanperä was a whopping 8.1 seconds faster than Ogier.
– I have to admit that I was surprised that Rovanperä came so hard. The first ek was the most violent of the weekend with huge rocks, and he came through it on full throttle. I really didn’t expect that, Ogier said.
Although Toyota took a big risk with its drivers, it came out of Kenya with dry feet with a four-way win. It was also a victory for sports.
Instead, Hyundai felt the revenge of the “sports gods” in Kenya.
In the previous race, with the team order given by Hyundai Esapekka Lappi was not allowed to fight for victory With Thierry Neuville against. In Kenya, the Belgian was rejected when his background troops irregularly collected additional information about route changes.
Lapland’s Hyundia, on the other hand, spread several times on Safari, but the Finn still managed to score one point from the Power Stage. The team’s third driver Dani Sordo was fifth.
The World Rally Championship continues in Estonia from July 20 to July 23.
Esapekka Lappi was not allowed to drive for victory in Sardinia. Vesa Pöppönen / All Over Press