Kalle Rovanpera dominated proceedings as a super-sub to win FIA WRC Rally Poland, with Elfyn Evans in P2 and Adrien Fourmaux P3.
Friday –
Andreas Mikkelsen found himself leading an FIA World Rally Championship round for the first time since 2019, heading Kalle Rovanperä by just 1.8sec after Friday at ORLEN 80th Rally Poland. Just 7.7sec blanketed the leading five drivers at the end of a frantic opening day on super-fast gravel roads. Temperatures touched a humid 30°C in northern Poland although two stage cancellations meant that tyre wear was not much of a concern, even for those running soft compound rubber.
Mikkelsen set the early pace and stormed into the lead on the Stańczyki opener as his title-hunting Hyundai colleague, Ott Tänak – who had led following Friday evening’s super special – retired with front-end damage caused by an unavoidable impact. The Norwegian star built a buffer of 7.4sec in his i20 N but came under attack from Toyota GR Yaris drivers Kalle Rovanperä and Elfyn Evans on the repeated afternoon loop when his late starting position offered less of an advantage on tracks already swept clear of loose gravel.
Toyota’s super-sub Rovanperä produced one of the drives of the day, pipping team-mate Evans in the final stage to head the Welshman by two-tenths of a second. The Finn was drafted in to replace Sébastien Ogier on Tuesday evening and even collected two stage wins despite having less than ideal pre-event preparations.
Evans posted top-three times for all but two stages and is currently poised to close the gap to title rivals Tänak and Thierry Neuville, whom he trailed coming into this seventh round of the season. Neuville, who currently leads the championship, faced slippery conditions on road-sweeping duties and ended down in seventh overall.
Mārtiņš Sesks made a stunning start to his Rally1 debut, stopping the clock just 0.3sec adrift of Mikkelsen’s time on SS2 and holding second overall until midday. Driving a non-hybrid Ford Puma, the 24-year-old Latvian fell to fifth in the afternoon, trailing full-time M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux by 0.2sec after yielding position to the Frenchman in the finale.
Grégoire Munster, also driving a Puma, ended 21.3sec adrift of the lead in sixth with Neuville a further 8.5sec behind. Eighth went to Takamoto Katsuta, who struggled to find a comfortable rhythm in his Toyota, while WRC2 frontrunners Sami Pajari and Kajetan Kajetanowicz completed the top 10. Crews face seven more stages covering 124.10km tomorrow, including a third pass over the short super special stage next to the rally’s Mikołajki base.
Saturday –
Kalle Rovanperä sits on the cusp of a potentially extraordinary ORLEN 80th Rally Poland victory after a dominant Saturday saw him seize the lead from Andreas Mikkelsen. Rovanperä ended Saturday’s penultimate leg holding a 9.4sec lead over Hyundai i20 N rival Mikkelsen with four speed tests and 63km remaining in which to decide this seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship on Sunday.
With limited preparations having replaced Sébastien Ogier following a reconnaissance accident less than 48 hours before the rally, reigning world champion Rovanperä romped to six fastest times aboard his Toyota GR Yaris and overturned the 1.8sec advantage previously held by Mikkelsen on Friday night.
Tyre wear threatened to undermine the Finn’s dominance in the afternoon’s hot temperatures, which reached almost 30°C. The hard compound Pirelli rubber that made up the bulk of Mikkelsen’s selection outlasted Rovanperä’s mix of four softs and one hard. Despite that, Rovanperä made the best of his remaining tyres, even adding 4.2sec to his lead in the final 22km test.
Mikkelsen dropped to third behind GR Yaris driver Elfyn Evans after two stages, but Toyota’s 1-2 was short-lived as the Welshman suffered a rear tyre delamination on SS13. It cost Evans almost 10sec and he was forced to settle for the final podium spot, trailing Mikkelsen by 6.7sec overnight.
Evans could take solace from the fact that he outscored main title rivals Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak in the Saturday points distribution, collecting 13 points compared with Neuville’s six and Tänak’s zero. The latter, who had already stopped on Friday, retired his Hyundai again this lunchtime in a bid to preserve the car for Super Sunday.
Adrien Fourmaux continued his strong run to fourth overall in an M-Sport Ford Puma, ending the leg 20.9sec adrift of Evans but 21.2sec clear of fifth-placed Mārtiņš Sesks, driving a non-hybrid Puma. Sesks, who is making his top-level debut this weekend, did well to hold off championship leader Neuville by a single tenth while Grégoire Munster completed the top seven.
Toyota man Takamoto Katsuta remained a lacklustre eighth while WRC2 frontrunners Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg completed the top 10. Sunday’s final leg comprises double runs of Gmina Mrągowo and Mikołajki before the rally finishes in the mid-afternoon.
Sunday –
Kalle Rovanperä claimed one of the most remarkable victories in FIA World Rally Championship history at ORLEN 80th Rally Poland on Sunday. Reigning world champion Rovanperä, who is undertaking a selected programme of events in 2024, had never even planned to start this rally but was called upon by his Toyota GAZOO Racing team to replace Sébastien Ogier at the final hour. Ogier was sidelined by an accident during reconnaissance on Tuesday, leaving Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen with less than 48 hours to ready themselves.
Those frantic preparations didn’t seem to affect the Finn too much as he romped to his 13th career victory behind the wheel of a GR Yaris Rally1, heading team-mate Elfyn Evans by 28.3sec in a Toyota 1-2 after Hyundai rival Andreas Mikkelsen plummeted down the order on Sunday.
Rovanperä began the final leg 9.4sec in front of Mikkelsen, but the Hyundai driver’s bid for a second Rally Poland victory was foiled when he crawled to the end of the opening stage with a tyre off the rim. He tumbled to sixth by the finish as M-Sport Ford man Adrien Fourmaux completed the podium 14.4sec behind Evans.
Mikkelsen was chasing his first victory since 2016 and led through Friday before slipping behind Rovanperä in the penultimate leg. The flailing rubber ripped his i20 N car’s rear wheel arch apart and the Norwegian chose to cruise through the closing stages. The four-day rally was blessed with hot weather throughout and provided edge-of-the-seat drama as drivers traded tenths of a second on blisteringly fast roads.
Barring a tyre delamination on Saturday and a slow puncture in the finale, Evans fared well compared to his main title rivals. The Welshman overtook Ott Tänak to reclaim second in the drivers’ championship and cut Thierry Neuville’s lead to 15 points with six rounds remaining.
An unavoidable impact forced Tänak’s retirement on Friday morning but he restarted on the following days and was able to salvage 11 points from Super Sunday. His Hyundai colleague Neuville, meanwhile, won the Wolf Power Stage but finished fourth after sweeping the road clear of loose stones on Friday.
Puma star Fourmaux, who scored his third podium of the season, ended the rally 28.1sec clear of Belgium’s Neuville while Latvia’s Mārtiņš Sesks delivered a mighty fifth-place finish on his top-flight debut. Sesks, who ran as high as second early in the event, was driving a non-hybrid Puma but will upgrade to a full-spec car for his home round next month.
Mikkelsen limped home over two minutes back from Rovanperä in sixth ahead of Grégoire Munster and Takamoto Katsuta. Ninth place went to Sami Pajari, winner of the WRC2 category, while Oliver Solberg capitalised on a puncture for Robert Virves to sneak into the top 10.
Results: https://www.wrc.com/live-timing?liveTimingMenu=overall_livetiming&stage=FINAL&championshipId=245
[Note: The story is as per press release]