At a – just turned, to boot – 22-years-of-age, you could be forgiven for thinking that youthful Repco Rally of New Zealand winner Kellie Rovanperä has the world at his feet.
Sorry to disappoint all you more recent converts, but it’s probably fair to say that ‘young’ Kelle actually had the (rally) world snapping at his (w) heels 14 years ago-at the tender age of just 8!
Kalle Rovanperä – first year of rally driving at age of 8
But now, having seized the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC) Driver’s title with two full rounds yet to run it would appear that like the trick little WRC1-spec Yaris hybrid he drives for the ‘works’ Toyota Gazoo Racing squad, Kalle Rovanperä represents nothing more or less than a breath of fresh Nordic air to a championship which – let’s face it – has struggled of late for the relevance it once had in the eyes of manufacturers and fans alike.
A new k̶i̶d̶ ̶ champ on the block ｜Kalle Rovanperä, the youngest ever WRC Champion
As it turns out, 2022 was always going to be something of a watershed year for the WRC. With new Hybrid (petrol + electric) engine spec the elite WRC cars were something of an unknown quantity. And with 7-time WRC champion, Frenchman Sebastian Ogier, only committing to doing some rounds of the championship series the way was left open for another driver to step up and mount a challenge for the 2022 WRC title Initially, anyway, Kalle Rovanperä did not look like that driver. In fact, sitting inside his Yaris on the Col de Turini on Thursday evening at this year’s Rallye Monte-Carlo, Kalle Rovanperä looked anything but comfortable.
“The balance of the car is really tricky for me to drive,” Rovanperä said of his GR Yaris after dropping 42.8sec across 23.25 kilometres on the second stage of the WRC’s 50th anniversary season.
Things soon began to look up for the young Finn, however. Having ended the opening pair of stages way down in 12th overall, he climbed to ninth on Friday and by Saturday was setting stage-winning times.
Ending Rallye Monte-Carloin fourth place, perhaps young Rovanperä hadn’t made such a bad start after all.
In fact, just one month later in Umeå, Sweden, the 21-year-old wasted no time opening the snow and ice-covered roads of Rally Sweden, ending the opening leg just behind five-time WRC series runner-up Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) before taking the lead then holding off hard-charging team-mate Elfyn Evans until Evans slammed into a snowbank and Rovanperä went on to claim his first WRC scalp of the year pretty much unopposed.
Young Kalle was obviously on a roll by now, as he went on to win the next two WRC events on the trot; April’s Croatia Rally- the first asphalt fixture of the hybrid era – then Vodafone Rally de Portugal.
He led from the start of the Croatian event only for a storm in the penultimate speed test wipe out his hard-earned advantage.
A resurgent Ott Tänak, whose gamble on softer Pirelli tyres gave his Hyundai i20 N a performance edge on the streaming asphalt, grabbed a 1.4sec lead before the Wolf Power Stage – but as he did when confronted with a similar scenario on the third and final day of Repco Rally NS – Rovanperä simply threw caution to the wind and remarkably overturned that deficit to win by 4.3sec, extending his points lead to 29 after just three rounds.
The hat-trick was completed just weeks later at Vodafone Rally Portugal, where after trailing his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Elfyn Evans for the opening two days, young Kalle put down the hammer in the penultimate leg to take the lead, before extending it further on Sunday – winning the rally and taking five bonus points on the Wolf Power Stage to leave Porto 46 points ahead.
The next event on the 2022WRC ‘tour’ was Rally Italia Sardegna and for Rovanperä it was very much the one that got away.’
Because?
Because the 21-year-old had the dubious task of opening the road on Friday and struggled for traction on the loose gravel stages.
An improved road position later in the rally enabled him to climb the order but he was never really in the podium battle and eventually settled for fifth overall – still the highest-placed Toyota but a disappointing weekend for the team, nonetheless.
Despite that, he did extend his championship advantage by nine points after Evans stopped with suspension trouble.
And anyway, the youthful second-generation son of former WRC works driver Harrio Rovanperä, ably co-driven by long-term partner Jonne Halttunen, was soon back to his winning ways at Safari Rally Kenya, seizing the top spot from team-mate Sebastien Ogier on Friday afternoon and unchallenged from then on – to head a historic 1-2-3-4 for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
Then, returning to the site of his maiden FIA World Rally Championship victory 12 months before, (Estonia) young Kalle grabbed the lead on Friday afternoon and at the finish on Sunday was more than a minute clear of his closest challenger Elfyn Evans, and with (yet) another Wolf Power Stage victory, his championship lead now stood at 83 points just seven rounds in.
With a five-year drought since a local driver had won Secto Rally Finland, the pressure was on for the next WRC round. Finnish celebrations were muted, however, as young Kalle was beaten to the top step of the podium by Ott Tänak, who enjoyed a fresh turn of speed with his Hyundai.
In saying that it was Rovanperä who had such a commanding lead in the 2022 WRC series’ drivers’ points standings that the next event on the calendar, Rally Belgium, presented the first mathematical opportunity for the youngster to seal the title.
It was, therefore, ironic in the extreme that, for the first time all season, the 21-year-old showed he might be human after all.
Overcooking a left-hander on Friday’s opener, his Yaris slid into an infamous ditch and rolled spectacularly.
A monumental effort by Toyota’s mechanics enabled Rovanperä to re-join and salvage maximum Wolf Power Stage points, although his points advantage over Tänak – who won the rally – was cut to 72.
It was a similar story at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece. Languishing down in ninth overall after a poor opening day, Rovanperä’s car sustained heavy rear-end damage when he sideswiped a tree. He crawled back to service and the team repaired the car, but the damage was done, and he finished a lowly 15th.
And so, when the WRC finally returned to our shores last month, after an absence of 10 full years, there were question marks over whether Rovanperä would be able to end his bad run of form anddo enough to take the title down under.
On paper, he needed to outscore Tänak by eight points to get the job done. If he won, however, he would require just seven more than his rival at the 11th round.
Tänak started strongly and led after day one, but a 15sec penalty for two hybrid rule breaches for the Estonian provided an unexpected birthday gift for the now-22-year-old Rovanperä, who duly pulled clear of the chasing pack to carry a comfortable buffer into Sunday’s four-stage finale.
And so, we’ve witnessed the Séb era – could this be the start of the Kalle era? Only time will tell. One thing, however, is certain – age is definitely on his side!.
Of which more in a second column in another couple of weeks.
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