How Rovanpera reached a Loeb-like level in Estonia WRC domination

By:

Tom Howard

Jul 24, 2023, 3:43 PM

Kalle Rovanpera was on another level at Rally Estonia and made a big statement on defending his World Rally Championship crown. While his rivals could only watch on and wonder, the Finn picked up comparisons to a fellow rally great.

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Finnish rally legend Markku Alen once uttered the words “I feel if I want to win the stage, I will win the stage” during a period of World Rally Championship dominance 36 years ago. The saying steeped in rally folklore was revived by the WRC’s latest flying Finn Kalle Rovanpera, who repeated those famous words en route to the most crushing victory of his career to date at Rally Estonia last weekend.

There wasn’t any arrogance behind Rovanpera’s delivery of Alen’s words, just pure fact backed up by the timing screens, and an astonishing streak of 13 consecutive stage wins that left his rivals trailing in his wake. The 22-year-old raised the bar to new heights on his way to becoming the youngest-ever world champion last year, but in Estonia, he and co-driver Jonne Halttunen raised it further.

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Tom Howard

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Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.