The past weekend was clearly the best of Rovanperä’s short single-seater career. On Saturday, only one race could be run due to heavy rain, in which Rovanperä climbed onto the podium by finishing third. The podium place was Rovanperä’s first in New Zealand.
On Sunday, rainfall once again made the circuit slippery to drive, but the Finnish star brought both races home in fine style and with good results. In the first 25-lap race Rovanperä finished fifth, and in the latter 30-lap contest he was seventh.
In his first two Formula weekends Rovanperä did not challenge the front runners, but this time the pace was clearly improved. The wet 2.57-kilometre-long Teretonga Park circuit suited Rovanperä very well.
“P5 & P7 from today’s mixed condition races. Pace in the wet was again pretty good, but now we need to work to get the dry pace there as well,” Rovanperä writes on the social media service X.
In the four-weekend-long championship battle, team-mates Briton Freddie Slater and American driver Ugo Ugochukwu are engaged in a fierce fight for the title. In Sunday’s opening race Slater took victory just ahead of Ugochukwu. In the second race, the American went off the track and was left with minor placings, while Slater once again claimed the win.
“Honestly we didn’t have the pace in the dry and when the rain came I knew it was reset time,” said Slater afterwards. “I had a mega final restart and was happy to put him under pressure and be on his tail into turn one. It was a good race and a good way to finish the weekend but we have some work to do to win this thing so it’s full send from here,” Slater commented on the series’ website.
The New Zealand Formula Regional Championship concludes next weekend at Highlands Motorsport Park in the town of Cromwell. After the New Zealand “sprint season”, a new challenge will quickly begin for Rovanperä, as the main focus of this season is the Japanese Super Formula series.
Rovanperä will have testing scheduled in February–March ahead of the actual season. The Japanese Super Formula series gets under way in early April. The championship, consisting of a total of 12 rounds, will conclude in November.
