Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera survived challenging foggy conditions to record a fourth win from a partial World Rally Championship campaign at Rally Chile.
Reigning world champion duo Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen tamed 16 tricky stages, some of which were affected by treacherous thick fog and slippery conditions, to beat Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans by 23.4s. Hyundai’s Ott Tanak completed the podium, 43.9s behind, in the final gravel round of the year.
Rovanpera had initially struggled for outright speed in Friday’s dry conditions, admitting that his driving style didn’t suit Chile’s loose gravel stages. However, the Finn managed to haul his GR Yaris through the day’s six tests in third, 10.1s off the pace.
Tanak had ended Friday with a 0.4s lead over Evans before stewards intervened. Toyota requested a review of the notional time awarded to Evans after stage one was cancelled for spectator safety reasons once Thierry Neuville, Tanak and Sebastien Ogier had passed through.
A revised time issued to Evans, that led to a failed protest from Hyundai, elevated Evans to the rally lead by three seconds heading into Saturday when weather conditions turned the event on its head.
The day’s abrasive stages suited Rovanpera’s style better and he climbed ahead of Tanak into second after stage eight.
However, two stage wins helped Evans extend his lead over Rovanpera to 11.3s before thick fog and rain closed in. The fog was at its worst on the mountainous stage 11, reducing visibility to 20 metres with Evans facing the worst of the conditions.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Evans deployed his soft tyres but couldn’t use them to their potential due to the poor visibility and duly dropped 24.1s, handing the rally lead to Rovanpera.
Taking advantage of the soft tyres he’d saved for the final stage, much wetter than anticipated, he opened up a 15.1s margin over his team-mate and scored the 18 points on offer with Evans settling for 15 points.
Tanak’s gamble for hard tyres backfired in the wet conditions, leaving the Estonian 33.6s adrift in third to earn 13 points. Championship leader Neuville, who performed an impressive damage limitation job having struggled for speed when opening the roads on Friday, climbed from seventh to fourth and scored 10 points.
Thick fog and muddy conditions continued into Sunday’s stages, before…
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