Twenty-one points down in the title chase with three rounds remaining, the double champion knows he needs results
Photography by Toyota
Words by Alasdair Lindsay, Head of Digital Strategy
At no point this season has Kalle Rovanperä led the World Rally Championship drivers’ standings. But he’s been close behind team-mate Elfyn Evans and erstwhile leader Ott Tänak all the way.
Running wide and clattering a bank in Chile, which debeaded a tire and caused a deflation, derailed his hopes of taking the championship lead from Evans. Now he’s 21 points adrift of the top spot with three rounds to go.
Rovanperä recovered from ninth to sixth place and scored some Sunday and powerstage bonus points in Chile. But it wasn’t enough to stop him from feeling dejected at the finish.
“It’s not the point of the season where leading a few stages is a good thing,” Rovanperä told DirtFish. “We need some results. You either get a good result or you don’t.”
There are three rounds remaining this season and two are on asphalt. It’s a surface Rovanperä dominated on at April’s Rally Islas Canarias, though that rally’s fast and flowing racetrack-like roads with smooth asphalt bear little resemblance to the slippery, low-grip lanes of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
Rovanperä has won twice this year (including in Canarias) but lacked sustained consistency - and results
“We need to have much better pace on the Tarmac than on gravel,” said Rovanperä of his title chances. “Let’s say it has been quite a big struggle the whole year. [I am] not so consistent with the pace and it shows on the results – obviously this weekend with the puncture also.
“When you need to be the first car like [Saturday in Chile], the whole day, there is not much else we could have done. You just lose a lot of time and today there was not much more to take than what we got.
“We just need clean weekends and good results.”
Words:Alasdair Lindsay
Tags: Central European Rally 2025, Kalle Rovanperä, Rally Chile, Rally Chile 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date October 6, 2025 DirtFish
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