The Toyota driver clinched his second win of the season in stunning fashion, beating Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville by 52.7s after a streak of 13 consecutive stage wins.
Rovanpera claimed maximum points after winning the rally-ending Power Stage as the Finn went unbeaten across Saturday and Sunday’s stages. The feat sparked comparisons to when Sebastien Loeb won all 12 stages to win the 2005 Tour de Corse.
Rovanpera’s charge to victory was helped before the rally begun following a five-minute penalty for one of the pre-event favourites, Ott Tanak.
An engine failure in Thursday’s pre-event shakedown forced M-Sport into a power unit change triggering an unfortunate time penalty. The FIA will review the penalty regulation moving forward.
Faced with the disadvantage of starting first on the road, Rovanpera made light work of the road sweeping duties to assume the rally lead from an impressive Neuville after stage six on Friday afternoon. He ended the day with a 3.0s margin over the Belgian.
Rovanpera once again showed his class on fast gravel roads by clean sweeping all nine of Saturday’s stages to take a 34.9s advantage into Sunday’s four tests.
The championship leader could afford to back off but instead continued his devastating form to claim a memorable victory, extending his championship lead over Elfyn Evans to 55 points.
Source: Autosport