Rovanperä dominated the event at will and took the maximum points with him. At the same time, the Finnish driver jumped from sixth to second in the championship standings, although there’s still a 43-point gap to his teammate Elfyn Evans.
Rovanperä’s good friend and fellow teammate Takamoto Katsuta was delighted to see Kalle return to the top step of the podium. Katsuta recently moved from Jyväskylä to Monaco, where Rovanperä also resides between his rallying duties.
Katsuta’s own rally in the Canary Islands went well, as he managed to reset after the huge disappointment in the Kenya WRC round and finished in fourth place.
“Nobody can say anything bad about him. I knew and everybody knew that he’s one of the fastest driver and also champions and you know he’s the best,” Katsuta said at the end of the Canary Islands rally.
“He has had such a difficult beginning of the season. I felt quite pain because I know he is still fast but just small things and kind of luck was a bit missing and then it didn’t work well.”
Katsuta emphasised that Rovanperä is now back at the level where he belongs.
“Now he’s definitely where he should be. I’m very, very happy. I’m so proud of to be his team-mate.”
The World Rally Championship continues in two weeks in Portugal, where the competition returns to gravel.
