Rovanperä and his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans were the stars of the Arctic Lapland Rally, part of the Finnish Rally Championship, where they were testing their Rally1 cars for the upcoming Rally Sweden. Rovanperä showed exceptional speed throughout the weekend, but his run came to a halt towards the end of the final stage.
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala explained the reason behind Rovanperä’s retirement after the event.
“There was an oil leak. Then it became necessary to stop, as so much oil started to spill and the engine’s oil pressures dropped. He pulled over about a kilometre before the finish,” Latvala detailed.
“He was later able to leave the site when he got the hybrid system on. He managed to exit the special stage on electric power,” Latvala added.
According to Latvala, there’s no need to worry about the situation.
“The parts in the test cars have quite a lot of kilometres on them. In rallies, cars always get new parts. Age and mileage mean that damage is more likely to occur in an old part than a new one. In tests, we use old parts, and there’s a slightly higher risk. And now it happened here,” Latvala said.
“In itself, this doesn’t hinder anything. They got the test done, and Kalle was otherwise very satisfied with the car.”
Latvala himself competed in the Arctic Rally with his old Toyota Celica, finishing 20th overall. Without the seven-minute time penalty received on Sunday, he could have reached the top ten.
Elfyn Evans emerged as the overall winner of the Arctic Lapland Rally. Meanwhile, the Finnish championship round was won by Mikko Heikkilä driving Toyota’s new Rally2 car, who claimed the legendary reindeer antlers for the first time for his first-place finish.
