Will Kalle Rovanperä win next year as well? Jari-Matti Latvala raised a tough challenger

Toyota’s “Finnish team” had a reason to rejoice on Sunday, when Kalle Rovanperä and a map reader Jonne Halttunen seal their second consecutive world championship.

Rovanperä took second place in the Central European World Rally Championship, which took him beyond the reach of his teammates From Elfyn Evans.

– I am really happy and proud for Kalle. Great performance. Of course, last year there was more adrenaline in the blood in New Zealand when he secured the championship, Latvala admitted.

The championship dispute was practically resolved already on Saturday, when Evans drove his Toyota towards the barn.

– After that, you could clearly see that Kalle would definitely take the championship. The feeling was that now we are just waiting for Kalle to finish and get the championship. It was hard to believe that Kalle would take care of the job. That’s why there wasn’t the same rush of adrenaline as last year.

Three wins

Rovanperä has shown numerous times that he can find speed no matter what and that he can control the situation even in challenging conditions. This year, his strength has also been consistency.

– Kalle has three wins before the Japan rally and only one suspension. Elfyn has two wins but two suspensions. It shows that that one interruption is quite significant, Latvala said.

– When he drives in the top four all the time, it shows that he has become consistent and his performance is really strong, even though his motivation was not at its best at the beginning of the year.

Strong resistance

Rovanperä will also start the next season as the biggest champion favorite. According to Latvala, getting a third title can be an even more difficult task for the Finnish star.

– I think it will be difficult next year when Ott Tänak goes to Hyundai. I think Tänak is really motivated and wants another title. There is going to be a lot of resistance from there.

Toyota cleaned up the awards table as a whole this year as well. In addition to the drivers’ and map readers’ titles, the Japanese manufacturer has already secured the brand championship.

The team will not stay to celebrate their championships until Sunday evening in the city of Passau, Germany.

– The difficulty here is that everyone is going home. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much celebration. It will move to a later stage, Latvala stated.