Throughout the season, Rovanperä has struggled with the new tyre supplier in the World Rally Championship, Hankook. The tyres have not suited his natural driving style, costing him crucial tenths of a second especially through corners – and over time, those losses have been painfully visible on the clock.
However, after Thursday’s shakedown stage, Rovanperä appeared more confident than he has in a while.
“Feeling pretty good. The atmosphere always gets quite high during this weekend, and especially just before we get to start driving. The vibe is good,” Rovanperä told RallyJournal.com.
He also managed to get the car’s setup much more to his liking. It’s still not perfect, but the direction is now clearly right.
“The car felt pretty good. It’s not completely optimal, but it’s a lot better now. We’ve been trying to work hard on it during testing. We’ve tried everything we can,” Rovanperä confirmed.
So far this season, Rovanperä has taken just one win – a commanding victory on circuit-like asphalt roads at Rally Islas Canarias in April.
But does it now really feel like you could fight for a top result in Rally Finland?
“At least I’ve got a better feeling now. I’m the kind of guy who always sets realistic goals and I know where we’re starting from. But this weekend we’re going to give absolutely everything and push to the maximum to get that top result,” Rovanperä said, offering a hopeful outlook.
A unique feature of this year’s Rally Finland is that Sunday will consist solely of runs through the legendary Ouninpohja stage. The over 30-kilometre test will be driven twice, with the second pass serving as the rally’s Power Stage.
“It’s quite interesting. Maybe it would have been better to drive more of the narrow road at the start, which now only comes at the end. On the wide road, there won’t be much time difference – just like we saw last year. All the gaps came at the end. So on Sunday, it might be really difficult to make a difference, but it’ll definitely be an interesting and challenging day,” Rovanperä reflected.
One of the talking points again this year is the so-called virtual chicanes. The solution has not been met with enthusiasm among drivers – and Rovanperä is no fan either.
“They’re really not a good idea at all. As we already saw in the shakedown, there’s quite a big variation in when the display shows you that you’re under 60 kilometres per hour. It runs on GPS, and there can be a lot of delay. That gets even worse on Sunday, on a stage where there aren’t big time differences to begin with. If you have delay in the system, you could suddenly lose half a second or even a full second compared to others, and that’s just insane. It’s not a good thing. A proper chicane always depends on the drivers skills – and that’s how it should be,” Rovanperä said bluntly.
