In Estonia, Rovanperä is expected to return to the fight for victory. The Finnish star dominated the tarmac rally in the Canary Islands in April, but since then, gravel events have been more of a struggle. While he did secure third place finishes in Portugal and Sardinia, these are now crucial moments for his WRC campaign.
“The goal is always to be fighting for victory. In a rally like this, the chances are still quite good, so naturally that has to be the aim. Every year I’ve approached this rally the same way,” Rovanperä summed up.
“You just have to go flat out and see what happens. From the start, you have to go full throttle and not think too much. You’ll see later what you get out of it.”
At least during the pre-event test, the feel with Hankook tyres on fast gravel roads was better than during the technically demanding and rough gravel rallies earlier in the summer.
“The feeling was a lot better compared to the other rallies this year. It’s been difficult on gravel, but here you can tell that you have to fight the difficult stuff a lot less,” said Rovanperä.
“It’s still not quite like it used to be, but then again, there’s no point longing for the past—it was what it was back then. This is still different, but it’s much better now.”
Rovanperä expects home hero Ott Tänak to be among the frontrunners in the fight for victory. On the other hand, in a rally as fast as this, time gaps are always small, which means surprise contenders may emerge.
“You never know beforehand who’ll be in the fight. It’s definitely going to be a tough battle. You could already see in the shakedown that the gaps were really small. There are a lot of familiar stages here, so it’s quite easy to learn how they’ve been driven fast in past years,” Rovanperä reflected.
“These days, everyone knows how to push in a rally like this. The time gaps will definitely be small, and the fight will be tight. Ott is always fast here.”
Off the stages, Rovanperä also turned a few heads in the service park – thanks to a fresh new look.
“Pretty simple style. I don’t even know where the idea came from. I couldn’t be bothered to go to a barber, since the past few weeks have been quite hectic. This doesn’t need much styling in the morning,” Rovanperä laughed in an interview with RallyJournal.com.
The “haircut” was the handiwork of Arttu Hanhinen, who handles Rovanperä’s media duties. Hanhinen quickly applied the new look to the rally star.
“Arttu did a pretty good job. There’s definitely a barber in him if he ever decides to leave his current job,” the Toyota driver quipped.
