Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen entered the rally, which is part of the Finnish Rally Championship, for testing purposes. The competition offered an excellent opportunity to fine-tune the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 car’s setups under race conditions before Rally Sweden.
Rovanperä’s teammate, Elfyn Evans, also started the race but could not match the Finnish star’s pace on the snowy stages. Rovanperä had nearly a minute’s lead over Evans before the last special stage.
However, Rovanperä’s race ended a little over a kilometer before the finish of the final stage. Rovanperä cited a technical fault for the retirement, but the situation also sparked conspiracy theories.
It was speculated that Rovanperä’s car might have been testing new solutions that were intended to be kept secret.
“Something they were hiding from the scrutineers, but what parts were they testing on KR69’s car?” was written in a message received by RallyJournal.com’s journalist.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, who also competed in the Arctic Rally, explained after the race that Rovanperä’s car had developed an oil leak.
“Then they had to stop because so much oil was leaking and the engine’s oil pressures dropped. He pulled over about a kilometer before the finish,” Latvala clarified.
“He was able to leave there later when he got the hybrid unit working. He managed to leave the special stage on electric power.”
It seems that Latvala’s explanation holds water – and, on the other hand, the conspiracy theories can likely be discarded.
A video has been published on YouTube showing Rovanperä’s encountered problems on the Sarriojärvi special stage.
“Someone come hold the hood up,” Rovanperä calls out to the spectators present while Halttunen discharges an extinguisher into the engine bay.
Rovanperä drove in Lapland with a Toyota’s test car, in which not all parts were, so to speak, fresh out of the package.
“Age and mileage make it more likely that damage will occur to an old part than to a new one. In tests we use old parts, and there’s a slightly higher risk. And now, this happened here,” Latvala said.
Rovanperä continued his preparation for Rally Sweden on Tuesday when he completed a full day of testing at Toyota’s test area in Central Finland.
