Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier had an accident during recce, and Rovanperä and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen were called in as replacements.
Rovanperä and Halttunen’s schedule was quite harsh, as the rally organiser granted the duo an exception to do the recce later than others. This meant that the pair started recce on Wednesday morning and completed almost the entire rally in just over half a day.
“Wednesday was quite a long day. When you go 14 hours straight without breaks, you’re pretty exhausted. And of course, even before that, the preparation for this rally wasn’t as it should be”, Rovanperä said.
On Thursday morning’s shakedown, the Toyotas couldn’t match the leaders’ pace. Although the shakedown didn’t give a true picture of the rally’s nature, it was clear that Rovanperä might face significant challenges in the extremely fast gravel rally due to insufficient preparation.
“The biggest problem was, of course, getting up to speed without having done tests. It’s been quite a while since I last drove on fast gravel. Naturally, we also had to test the car a bit to see what settings to use. We didn’t have much time to fine-tune, so to speak”, Rovanperä admitted.
Rovanperä also encountered some small surprises on the shakedown that he couldn’t anticipate based on the recce.
“When we did the notes, the official recce time was already over and all the chicanes had been removed. There were already many people there, and the bales and other things were a bit in different places than I expected them to be. All those little things”, Rovanperä recounted.
The quick emergency call also meant a lot of preparations had to be made with the car. The car had to be converted from Ogier’s to Rovanperä’s.
“The team had quite a lot of general stuff with them here. When we jumped on the plane from Tikkakoski Finland, quite a lot of my car’s parts came along, a couple of boxes. The seat came in the same transport and all sorts of other little things”, Rovanperä explained.
Rovanperä’s holiday week was interrupted by the Rally Poland task. With the preparation being inadequate, there certainly aren’t any pressures.
“In principle, I can drive quite pressure-free, but on the other hand, it’s not very nice. There’s not that sure feeling you normally have. I definitely don’t remember the stages as well as others since I haven’t watched the videos. This is one hell of a fast rally, and it’s not fun to drive from the notes at the same pace as others”.
Rovanperä’s holiday was interrupted because of Rally Poland. The Finn made his feelings on the matter very clear.
“It wasn’t very nice”, the Finn admitted straightforwardly.
Rovanperä was in holiday mode. The Finnish champion certainly couldn’t have anticipated the call to Poland. He was watching National Hockey League´s team Florida Panthers’ championship celebrations live on television, unsuspecting.
“We watched the Stanley Cup final until six in the morning on Tuesday and the next morning we had to be on the recce at the same time. My sleep rhythm hasn’t been quite right, so this will be quite a long week with overly long days and preparation that hasn’t been quite optimal”, Rovanperä admitted.
