Jonne Halttunen admits that WRC title means the world to him and could never imagine that he would become a Co-Driver Champion in World Rally Championship one day while he is talking about Kalle Rovanpera and what they discussed on Sunday morning in New Zealand.
The crew stormed to New Zealand lead at the end of Saturday morning and since then was managing their gap over their rivals. They managed to win six stages and to get the maximum points from this event as they set the fastest time in Powerstage resulting in securing their first title in WRC.
"It means the world to me", Halttunen said.
"To be honest, it’s something I could never have even dreamed of like six years ago, and now we are here and it feels so nice.
"We started the season really badly in Monte-Carlo and after the first stages we were even slower than the Rally2 cars.
"Now, to have six wins this season and the title already with two rallies to go, it’s something unbelievable.
"There was a clear mistake with the pace notes in Ypres and in Greece we were fighting a lot with the setup of the car.
"I think, even with any mindset, it would have been the same.
"For sure, it has a few effects, but we gathered ourselves quite nicely here and we did our job".
Finally, he is talking about Rovanpera: "Kalle is super, super talented and it's just not his physical skills, but also the mental side is so strong.
"Actually, people under pressure and normally crack, but Kalle is the opposite - he just gets better and better and better.
"We tried to play it cool and even on Sunday morning, Kalle and I were discussing and we decided to approach it like any normal rally and not think about anything.
"It was the same with the Power Stage - we just pushed like normal and gave it full send".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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