The reigning world champion has an opportunity to seal a second consecutive world title this weekend, although the Finn rates his chances of achieving the feat as “small” heading into the gravel rally.
Rovanpera holds a 33-point lead over his Toyota team-mate Evans with 90 points remaining from the final three events of the season.
To successfully defend his world title this weekend he would need to win the rally and finish at least fourth fastest on the final Power Stage, if Evans fails to register any points.
Rovanpera will face the added challenge of opening the roads as championship leader. The rally will, however, provide a level playing field of sorts with only one stage retained from the championship’s only previous visit back in 2019, when Rovanpera was competing in Rally2.
“We need to be clever and my only goal is to compare to Elfyn and try to score more points than him," said Rovanpera, who was second fastest and 0.5s slower than rival Evans on Thursday’s shakedown stage.
“I haven’t really calculated it [what I need to win the title] but it is still quite a small chance. I’m not thinking about it much.
“If we are fighting with him and if we can get more points than him then we don’t need to be fighting for the other positions.
Source: Autosport