Kalle Rovanperä scored more points than anyone at the weekend, but just 1.3s cost him a four-point swing
Photography by Toyota
Words by Luke Barry
By most metrics, Kalle Rovanperä was the big winner of Central European Rally.
He picked up 31 points, Elfyn Evans snared 25 while Sébastien Ogier collected just 10.
That means Evans leads the World Rally Championship by 13 points heading to the penultimate event in Japan, with Rovanperä and Ogier sharing second.
The trouble is, for the sake of 1.3 seconds Rovanperä could be just nine points behind instead. Had he been just slightly quicker on Super Sunday and the powerstage, he’d have beaten Evans and therefore moved closer to his lead while also jumping ahead of Ogier in the Japan running order.
“Obviously, a few points more would have been better to be in front of Séb in Japan,” Rovanperä confessed to DirtFish. “But I think we did a good job anyway, having a big lead. It’s never the easiest to push with that and leaving the last risk out.”
This was Rovanperä’s ultimate dilemma in CER. Ogier’s crash on Saturday left him with a big lead, so suddenly he had 25 points to lose – and it appears that weighed just slightly heavier on him than the bonus points he could gain from the final day.
“Being last car on the road, I think we got quite a lot more pollution than everybody else,” the CER winner continued. “Obviously every car brings a bit more, so yeah you have the gravel crew notes, you see that they say it’s quite clean. You come, it’s more dirty than you expect, so obviously some pollution. It’s a normal thing on Tarmac.
“So I think [it was a] good Sunday. Pushing well, but no crazy risks. Only Elfyn, let’s say, would have been possible to beat. For sure Séb being first car on the road, no chance.”
Analyzing where to push and where to pull back is what makes the top rally drivers so great. Rovanperä provided a little insight into that thought process when contesting a stage.
Rovanperä could've gained two more points, but had to balance the risk of losing his 25
“I would say it goes a bit in sections,” he said. “Straight away, when you know that it’s clean, like on the splits also, we did really well. Straight away I know if it’s clean, I can go with the proper pace. For sure, if you know it’s a proper gravel cut or something, you just leave the small margin that if there is a big surprise or something, that you have at least a small margin anyway on Tarmac.
“Like the pace we pushed on the powerstage, you can’t have big surprises with that. But obviously, you can just take a bit more. And yeah, we didn’t take it today.”
His odds of a third title are looking far more favorable than before the trip to Passau though, as Rovanperä has moved eight points closer to the top.
“Yeah – really good weekend,” he surmised. “Obviously, I think we did pretty well. The plan was to win here and get some good points. We did that, so it really helps our situation.
“Obviously now Elfyn is still far ahead, but still the chances are better.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Central European Rally, Central European Rally 2025, Kalle Rovanperä, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date October 20, 2025 DirtFish
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