The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, praises the maturity and the performance of Kalle Rovanpera in the last WRC events after the end of Acropolis Rally Greece.
The youngster achieved his first win in WRC at Rally Estonia becoming the youngest driver who wins a WRC event breaking Latvala's recond.
After two events, Rovanpera dominated in Greece and he achieved his second win of the season there having set the fastest times on Saturday's and on Sunday's stages and having managed his gap from his rivals.
It must be reminded that the first half of this season was not so perfect for Rovanpera as he had a huge crash at Croatia which was forced him to retire from that event while he retired from Rally Portugal before the start of SS14 with a suspension and a chassis damage, but he rejoined the race under the regulations of Rally2.
At Rally Sardinia, he was forced to retire after the end of Stage 4 as he hit something with his car and he damaged the front right suspension. The mechanics of Toyota repaired his Yaris for the second day of that event and he restarted under the regulations of Rally2, but due to that fact he finished outside the top ten.
However, he managed to come back stronger after these incidents and he achieved two wins (Rally Estonia, Acropolis Rally Greece) and one podium (Ypres Rally Belgium) while he has finished in top five five times so far (Rallye Monte Carlo, Arctic Rally Finland, Ypres Rally Belgium, Rally Estonia, Acropolis Rally Greece).
"Suddenly this flying Finn comes and he’s dominating the Saturday and the Sunday of the rally, it’s really amazing to see his performance and how calm and how mature he is", said Latvala of Rovanperä.
"He’s been growing up during this year, I would say he’s taken a five-year step forward on how he is and his personality.
"Honestly it’s been really nice to work with Kalle and of course I would say during the spring months when he had the difficulties he was growing a lot, it was educating him.
"And I think he took really big steps forward in his career because of those difficulties, he managed to turn them into a strength.
"After the Safari we could see it in Estonia already and again in Belgium and here".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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