Kalle Rovanpera says that his victory at Rally de Portugal was definetely unexpected due to his road position on Friday stages admitting that he had good pace all the weekend.
The Finn driver had to start first on the road on Friday and to clean the roads for the following drivers, but he managed to be consistent throughtout the weekend and took the lead from Elfyn Evans on the second loop of Saturday as the last one struggled into the stages when the rain started.
Rovanpera was faster in some stages on Sunday than Evans, therefore he increased their between gap and ended up winning this year's Rally de Portugal.
In fact, he scored the maximum points there as he was the fastest driver in Powerstage and this was his second time in a row where he got the maximum points from a race.
After the end of Rally de Portugal, Rovanpera increased his lead on drivers' championship and has 106 points while the second Thierry Neuville has 60 points.
"This victory was definitely a bit unexpected", Rovanpera said.
"Starting first on the road on Friday, I didn’t think we could fight for the win like this.
"But we managed to stay close to the guys in front and build it from there.
"We had a good pace all the time and a problem-free rally and to get the maximum points was really nice.
"Big thanks to the team, because we saw a lot of issues this weekend in really tough conditions but our car was perfect as always, so everybody in the team can be really proud of this result".
Photo Credits: Toyota
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