Rovanperä competed in three fast gravel rallies over the summer, securing wins in Poland and Latvia. However, his most recent outing on home soil in Central Finland ended bitterly when a loose rock sent the Finn off the road in the final corner of the penultimate stage.
Toyota faces an almost hopeless situation in the manufacturers’ championship, so the team is primarily chasing victory in Chile. Rovanperä is likely to be Toyota’s strongest contender in that battle.
“We’re going to try and do everything we can to help the team fight back in Chile. The roads there are fast and flowing like in Finland but the characteristics of the gravel and the road base is really different,” Rovanperä summarises.
“Managing the tyre wear is the biggest thing, I would say.”
Last year, Rovanperä finished fourth in Chile. He set three fastest stage times, but he never quite reached the top pace throughout the weekend. This time, at least, his starting position for the gravel rally is more favourable.
It was not the easiest event for us last year, but we had the speed at least and together with the team we have tried to learn from that so that we can have a clean weekend and be fighting for the podium places,” Rovanperä reflects.
“We had really good pace in the last rallies that we did during the summer in Europe and hopefully we can have a good comfortable feeling from the start of the rally.”
Rally Chile kicks off on Thursday afternoon (CET) with a shakedown, with the main event starting on Friday.
