Rovanperä becomes the youngest WRC champion by winning Rally New Zealand

After a 20-year hiatus, the FIA World Rally Championship title went to Finland again after a long period of French domination as Kalle Rovanperä managed to secure the driver´s championship by winning the calendar returning Repco Rally New Zealand and also breaking a 27-year-old record by becoming the youngest ever WRC champion.

The title couldn´t come in a better way for the young Toyota Gazoo Racing driver as the Finn had his birthday the day before snatching the crown, he now became the youngest champion by 22 years and one day old, the record was previously held by the great Colin McRae in 1995 when he took the title at the age of 27 years and 109 days.

Before the rally, Rovanperä, and co-driver Jonne Halttunen required seven more points than the championship rival Hyundai´s Ott Tänak to seal the title. Already on Saturday Rovanperä had a massive lead in the Auckland-based rally and remained unchallenged for the rest of the rally. He won all of the Sunday stages including the power stage which resulted in having enough points to secure the title. He won the rally by 34.6 seconds over the reigning champion and teammate Sébastien Ogier and 50 seconds over the frustrated rival Tänak.

This season also marks his third in the top level, he had a shaky start in Rallye Monte-Carlo before taking a hat trick of wins in Sweden, Croatia, and Portugal – winning on all three kinds of surfaces, snow, tarmac, and gravel. He also managed to win the challenging Rally Kenya later which proved he could face anything and in Estonia, Rally New Zealand was also his 30th start in the highest class.

“It’s quite a big relief after such a good season and finally we are here, it was a small wait after a few difficult rallies, but the biggest thanks go to the team – they made this rocket this year. Even after all the difficult rallies they were believing in us and giving us all the support.” Rovanperä said.

Thierry Neuville who had issues with his gearbox on Saturday came in fourth followed by his Swedish teammate Oliver Solberg in fifth, the Swede also suffered problems with his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 on Saturday by having misfires. Home hero Hayden Paddon won the WRC2 support category and ended the rally in sixth overall, followed by the WRC privateer Lorenzo Bertelli in seventh.

The Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz finished in eight ahead of the WRC2 debutant and V8 Supercar racing legend Shane van Gisbergen in ninth and Harry Bates rounding up the top 10.