Rovanperä leads Croatia shakedown
Kalle Rovanperä led the Croatia Rally shakedown stage race, just barely passing Thierry Neuville with a time of one minute, 52.5 seconds.
Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä of Finland finished the fastest at the Croatia Rally shakedown stage, just narrowly surpassing the current World Rally Championship points’ leader, Thierry Neuville, by a tenth of a second.
At the start, it was Ott Tänak who tool an early lead through the 2.28-mile Okić stage. In the third and final round, though, Rovanperä sped ahead, with a personal best time of one minute and 52.5 seconds.
Rovanperä is the least experienced of his competitors. At just 21 years old, he knows he has a long road ahead, despite the encouraging victory on Thursday in Zagreb. In the coming days, it’s expecting to be grey and rainy, adding still more difficulty to achieving his goals.
“Everybody has now one more year of experience there, so I think it’s going to be a bit difficult for us,” Rovanperä said. “But we have been in that situation also before and we just try to manage that the best way possible.”