Toyota driver Rovanpera will safe a second World Rally Championship title this weekend if he outscores team-mate Evans, which appears more and more doubtless after the latter crashed out on stage 11.
Evans will rejoin the rally on Sunday however will realistically solely have the ability to declare a most of 5 factors from the Energy Stage, whereas Rovanpera heads into the ultimate 4 phases sitting second general, 26.2s adrift of rally leader Thierry Neuville.
As soon as Rovanpera heard the information of Evans’ crash, he backed off to give up his rally result in Neuville.
The 23-year-old elected to proceed his cautious strategy till the ultimate stage of the day, arguably the hardest of the rally, when he elected to push and win the take a look at.
“After all it has been a giant problem at present, I can not say way more,” mentioned Rovanpera.
“There was a giant battle within the automobile between myself to not battle for the win and simply making an attempt to maintain the automobile on the street, which was a giant problem at present however the plan labored effectively.
“I simply wished to finish the day with a bit higher feeling so tomorrow if now we have dry climate, I can hopefully benefit from the driving once more a bit extra.
Photograph by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
“It [stage 14] was one thing loopy. I have not seen something like this earlier than and I did not suppose many drivers have.
“There have been just a few corners on tarmac and all the pieces else on mud and gravel, so the grip was unbelievably low.”
Looking forward to tomorrow, Rovanpera is refusing to consider profitable a second world title that might see him turn into solely the sixth driver in WRC historical past to win back-to-back championships.
“After all the sensation is nice however you by no means need to take into consideration these issues too early, now we have simply received to making an attempt concentrate on tomorrow,” he added.
“There’s not a lot pleasure [yet], you might be simply ready for it to be over so we’re simply counting down the phases.”