The 2023 World Rally Championship is therefore not yet folded. While Kalle Rovanperä had the opportunity to escape almost definitively at home in Finland, the defending champion made a mistake on Friday, opening the door to his opponents.
His teammate at Toyota, Elfyn Evans, took full advantage of the windfall, achieving the perfect rally, concluded on Sunday: a victory and five points taken in the Power Stage to reduce the gap in the standings from 55 to 25 points. Four rallies from the end of the season, the Finn has blown one of his jokers and only has one left.
Once he took control of the rally, Evans, who had already won at Jyväskylä in 2021, was no longer worried. On Saturday, he won all the specials except one, and he continued his domination on Sunday (3 out of 4 specials won).
Thierry Neuville second in the race
The Welshman’s last rival for victory, after the retirements of Ott Tänak (M-Sport Ford; engine failure) and Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai, off the road) also on Friday, Thierry Neuville did not have the speed to compete, emphasizing regularly his lack of confidence in the rear axle of his Hyundai i20 N. Prohibitive in Finland, with its very high speed stages (up to 140 km/h on average) between trees and rocks.
Relegated to 38” at the finish, the Belgian, second, can be satisfied with a positive result, equaling his best performance (2nd in 2013). He is also approaching Rovanperä overall (36 points behind).
The only issue at the end of the rally concerned the battle for third place between Takamoto Katsuta and Teemu Suninen. The first finally brought his Toyota to the podium (3rd at 1’32) with more regularity, despite a spin that could have cost him dearly on Saturday morning.
On Sunday, Suninen (4th at 1’38) tried everything, even starting without a spare wheel to try to gain some speed but, like Neuville, his Hyundai seemed too fair to fight with his Japanese rival.
No Finns on the podium, as in 2021
Its fourth place means that, for the second time in three years, there has been no Finn on the podium (as many times as between 2000 and 2019!), confirming the recent difficulties at home (no victory since 2017 , the longest drought in the history of this rally).
Fifth at the arrival of his luxury freelancer, Jari-Matti Latvala enjoyed himself all weekend, he who discovered behind the wheel the Rally1 and the hybrid engine. Toyota’s team principal was happy with his speed and not having made any big mistakes.
After leaving the track on Friday, Pierre-Louis Loubet hoped to score a few points during the Power Stage, but a problem with his engine prevented him from really fighting (6th in the PS).
The Championship will now take a break for four weeks, before resuming in Greece, the week of September 4 to 10. The change of scenery will be total and the hierarchy could be turned upside down, Toyota not having been successful for a year and a half in events with this profile.
