Kalle Rovanperä secures Safari rally victory
Finland’s Kalle Rovanperä displayed class throughout the weekend to register his second Safari Rally victory on Sunday in Naivasha, Kenya. The Finn did not put the foot wrong, keeping away from the Safari rally woes to dominate the event from Friday when he swept all the stages. He had dominating displays through to the final […] The post Kalle Rovanperä secures Safari rally victory appeared first on Kawowo Sports.
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Finland’s Kalle Rovanperä displayed class throughout the weekend to register his second Safari Rally victory on Sunday in Naivasha, Kenya.
The Finn did not put the foot wrong, keeping away from the Safari rally woes to dominate the event from Friday when he swept all the stages. He had dominating displays through to the final finish on Sunday.
The 23-year-old won the event to register his 12th career victory.
“It’s always special to win here. Also, a legendary event for Toyota. We’ve always been so good here and that’s continuing. Like they say in Africa, the car in front is always a Toyota,” said an excited Rovanperä.
“I think me and Jonne did a good job, I don’t think you can have a better Safari Rally than we did. No issues, clever driving and I think it was a good effort,” he added.
The reigning world rally champion is on a part-time programme with Toyota Gazoo racing this year. And Safari rally was his second event of the season.
Japan’s Takamoto Katsuta who was a victim of the Safari rally troubles, managed to climb back bringing another Toyota to the podium in second position.
Sealing the podium positions was M-Sport Ford Puma’s Adrien Fourmaux who had an impressive event, keeping it smooth to register his second consecutive podium.
Safari rally hit Toyota’s Elfyn Evans bringing him from podium with several punctures to settling for fourth position overall.
Evans picked valuable points to stay second on the WRC leaderboard; six points behind Thierry Neuville who threw everything to secure Super Sunday points and maximum power stage points. The championship leader Thierry finished in fifth position overall.
The Hyundai driver remains on top of the standings with 67points after three events.
In WRC2, Gus Greensmith had a smooth event to secure the victory followed by teammate Oliver Solberg who had a taste of the Safari rally woes on Friday.
Among the local drivers, Carl Tundo finished sixteeth overall while Karan Patel who was on a super rally basis finished 18th followed by Aakif Virani in 19th overall.
The WRC heads to Croatia next month for some asphalt action.
The post Kalle Rovanperä secures Safari rally victory appeared first on Kawowo Sports.
