Kalle Rovanpera says that a spin and a puncture were the real causes of his retirement in Stage 4 of Rally Sweden and apologizes to his team about his mistake.
The two-time WRC Champion was leading Rally Sweden over his teammate Takamoto Katsuta for 5,7 seconds at the end of Stage 3, but he had to pull over on an access road on the next stage. More specifically, some reports suggested that he was driving slowly with a puncture and a damage to the rear of his Yaris which was caused by a contact with a snowbank. In addition to that, the radiator of his car was covered with snow resulting in facing some problems with the engine. As a consequence of that, Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen decided to retire for the rest of Friday, but it is yet to be confirmed if they will restart tomorrow under the SuperRally regulations. Finally, it must be mentioned that he decided to have a partial programme with Toyota for this season and Rally Sweden is his first outing with the Yaris.
"We had a spin which then broke the radiator at the same time", Rovanpera said.
"We also had a puncture in the same moment and we fixed all those in the stage, but we had to unfortunately retire.
"So it’s a big shame, finally having a good start and also a good chance to fight for the win.
"Sorry for the team that we couldn’t bring some good points for them this weekend.
"It was tricky, of course, heavy snowfall all the time also.
"It was quite a similar moment to what Ott had also – I saw his video.
"Really similar moment, just going a bit wide.
"I think some guys in front of me already touched the bank quite a lot, so there was a big hole in the bank.
"I drop in the hole and the bank just kicks us over.
"Not, let’s say, a huge moment.
"We spin basically 360 degrees, but the radiator gone and also the puncture at the same time.
"So we would have lost time anyway, but unfortunately we couldn’t bring the car back".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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