Rovanperä struggled to find his top form, only really hitting his stride on the final day of the rally on Sunday.
On Sunday, Rovanperä set strong stage times and managed to overtake Hyundai’s Ott Tänak for fourth place. He was the second-fastest driver of the day, earning four bonus points. On the Power Stage, he clocked the fourth-fastest time, adding two more points to his tally.
Despite the tough start, Rovanperä managed to secure a decent haul of championship points in the end – which, as he noted, was the most important thing. Neither his teammate Elfyn Evans, who finished second, nor Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who came third, pulled significantly ahead in the standings.
“Yes, this was definitely a defensive victory. At one point, things looked a lot worse. Now the situation is that my starting position remains quite good, and the gaps to Fourmaux and Evans, who we’ll be battling with all season, aren’t too big,” Rovanperä summed up.
“There was never really a good feeling about this rally. Today, the tyre choice was spot on, and we had a good result. The pace on slicks was also decent. In the end, it wasn’t as big a disaster as it could have been,” Rovanperä continued.
Rally Monte-Carlo was won by Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier, but as he is only competing in selected events this season, he is not in contention for the championship.
“In that sense, the points situation turned out quite well after all,” Rovanperä said.
Rovanperä realised during Rally Monte-Carlo that his pace wasn’t enough to fight for victory. From that point on, his objective became clear.
“It’s important to get a good start to the season. That’s always been my approach. Of course, if the pace is there to fight for victory, then we go for maximum points. But if not, we just bring the points home. It’s better to have these points now than to be sitting on zero,” Rovanperä stated.
Rovanperä’s next challenge will be the traditional Arctic Lapland Rally, held next week. After that, the WRC season continues in mid-February with Rally Sweden. The Arctic Rally will serve as a valuable testing ground in preparation for Sweden.
“I’m heading towards Sweden with a good feeling. These tyres are probably quite different on snow as well, but thankfully we’ll get to test them in the Arctic Rally next week. Let’s see what we can achieve there. Hopefully, we’ll already be back to normal pace by then. It’s important to test there since we haven’t driven with these snow tyres yet,” Rovanperä previewed.
