Portugal's tough gravel stages kicked off a series of seven consecutive gravel WRC events, and Kalle Rovanpera's title defence burst into life 🔥 TommyHoward reviews the highs, lows, turning points and close calls in his regular postcard feature ⬇️
While Kalle Rovanpera refused to call his Rally Portugal performance the best of his career to date, it should rank among the finest. On Portugal’s mix of rough and fast gravel stages, Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen rekindled the magic that saw them dominate the 2022 season.
Rovanpera’s mesmerising drives raised the bar last year, creating an expectations of him. However, this year the game has changed. Toyota’s car advantage is not what it once was, as Hyundai has made developments while Ott Tanak has now given M-Sport a lift.Photo by: McKlein /Road position and misfortune have hampered Rovanpera at times this year, but there have been several flashes of the 2022 magic.
Honourable mentions: Dani Sordo/Candido Carrera, Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson and Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson Greensmith’s victory hopes were boosted when long time leader Oliver Solberg was handed a one-minute penalty forwhich resulted in a 35.4s deficit turning into a 24.6s advantage. However, a power steering issue struck on the final day, which required a Herculean effort to take the win by just 1.2s from a fired-up Solberg.
"The sport can be so much more and so much bigger for fans and that is what I believe. I just do what I enjoy in life and I try to bring joy to other people. I got that inspiration from Ken [Block]. I don’t regret anything I did, but clearly it was a mistake."On a weekend where Toyota, M-Sport-Ford and Hyundai all encountered issues, Toksport delivered a clean sweep of the WRC2 podium for the second time this season.
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