Kalle Rovanpera says poker. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver won the Chile Rally, the third to last round of the 2024 World Rally Championship, taking his fourth success of the season, the 15th of an already extraordinary career.
The young Finn also ousted Ott Tanak from the throne of the only winning driver in Chile. The Estonian from Hyundai Motorsport had won the two editions held so far, those of 019 and 2023, but this year the Toyotas proved uncatchable for everyone.
Kalle has dominated since Saturday afternoon, when he took the reins of the race and never let go. Also in this case, helped by a starting position in the special stages which was advantageous due to his status as a part-time driver, he was exceptional in attacking at the right moment and destroying the ambitions of success of an Elfyn Evans who was still too submissive, as he has so often been happened from 2021 to today.
The Welshman, however, completed an important double for Toyota, because it allows the Japanese manufacturer to keep the fight for the constructors’ championship title open. Now Hyundai leads with 482 points against Toyota’s 465. M-Sport is much further behind on 265 points.
If the first two positions in the event had no influence in the fight for the Drivers’ title, third place for Ott Tanak and fourth for World Championship leader Thierry Neuville certainly did. The Estonian, thanks to the overall result of the race, the Super Sunday and the Power Stage, reduced the gap from his teammate to 29 points, but with 2 races to go, with 60 points still up for grabs, Neuville will only have to close the Central European Rally with 31 points more than Tanak to finally win his first career World title.
This weekend Neuville gritted his teeth on Friday, forced as always to open practice as leader of the standings. Then on Saturday he was the protagonist of a good comeback that took him from eighth to fourth place, a position he maintained until the end of the Power Stage. All in all, a good weekend for him, who will now be able to settle the score next month on the surface he loves most: asphalt.
The Top 5 is completed by one of the drivers who performed best this weekend: Adrien Fourmaux. The Frenchman from M-Sport could have fought for the podium without the alternator problem which in the first part of the rally forced him to take a 1 minute penalty for arriving late at a Time Control. Adrien, however, was very good in terms of performance, setting excellent times from Friday to Sunday. He is showing off as a transfer man ahead of next season, and M-Sport will have to do everything to keep him after having nurtured and raised him over these years.
Gregoire Munster, however, closes just outside the Top 5, in one of his most convincing outings of the season. The Dutchman from M-Sport did well on Friday, thanks to an excellent starting position. Then, between Saturday and Sunday, he progressively lost performance, demonstrating that he was not yet ready to be a full-time driver, behind the wheel of a Rally1.
With Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville competing for the world title, Hyundai had to take note of Esapekka Lappi’s withdrawal. The Finn was never able to find the right rhythm, making mistakes which ultimately forced him to stop during the last stage.
Despite winning the Power Stage and Super Sunday, Sébastien Ogier may have said goodbye once and for all to the possibility of fighting for the World Drivers’ title. First an error that damaged a tire on Friday, so he had to waste 2 minutes to replace it, then a stone hit on Saturday that tore off a component of the front right suspension on Saturday forced him to retire. With Neuville’s fourth place, Ogier is now 41 points behind the top with 2 rallies to go.
Citroen Racing literally dominated WRC2 with a deadly one-two scored by Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin. Furthermore, the two drivers of the French company also gave the team title to DG Sport, the team that fields the two official Citroen C3 Rally2s. Third place for Gus Greensmith, the first TokSport team driver to reach the finish line, and the protagonist of a mistake in the Power Stage which, however, did not deprive him of a deserved podium.
Oliver Solberg postpones the appointment with the category title. The Norwegian, with a victory, would have managed to close the score already this weekend, but yesterday, just as he was first, he damaged a wheel and was forced to replace it, losing 2 minutes and the chance to win the title in this weekend. Sami Pajari, who raced a Rally1 this weekend, will still have the chance to undermine the former Hyundai Motorsport driver in the last 2 rallies of the season.
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