Kalle Rovanperä should not have participated in the Rally Poland, but ended up winning the seventh round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The two-time world champion was not scheduled for the Polish round, but was called in to replace Sébastien Ogier after he was injured last Tuesday in an accident during reconnaissance.
The final day of the race started with Andreas Mikkelsen, Rovanperä’s main pursuer (Toyota) until then, suffering a puncture in the Hyundai during SS 16 (Gmina Mrągowo 1). The Norwegian fell back to fifth place in the subsequent stage, while Rovanperä continued to strengthen his lead, which was 20.6s ahead of Elfyn Evans (Toyota) before the final stage.
In the Power Stage (Mikołajki 2), Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) set the pace, earning five extra points by being 1.6s faster than teammate Ott Tänak. Rovanperä set the third fastest time, 3.4s behind, with Adrien Fourmaux (M-Sport Ford) in fourth and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) rounding out the points positions. In the final classification, this resulted in Rovanperä’s victory with a 28.3s advantage over Evans, while Fourmaux secured another podium finish in third. Neuville finished fourth and Sesks achieved an encouraging fifth place after overtaking Mikkelsen in the penultimate stage.
Sami Pajari, in a Toyota, was the winner in WRC2, beating Oliver Solberg (Skoda) by exactly 22 seconds. Robert Virves (Skoda) started the day on the podium but was relegated to fifth place after a puncture in SS 18 (Gmina Mrągowo 2)… reacting with the fastest time in SS 19 to finish in third place.
In the WRC2 Challenger, Pajari prevailed over Virves by 1m23.3s, with Georg Linnamäe (Toyota) third, 1m23.9s behind. Nikolay Gryazin (Citroën) had some problems throughout the rally but only lost the podium in the Power Stage.
In WRC3, remarkable recovery from Diego Domínguez Jr. (Ford), who with three wins in four stages on Sunday achieved the final victory, beating Jakub Matulka (Ford) by 2.8s. Nataniel Bruun (Ford) closed the podium in the category. Michał Sołowow (Skoda) was the fastest in three of the four stages of the day in the WRC Masters Cup, but Armin Kremer (Skoda) sealed a comfortable victory with a 2m46.5s lead. Roberto Triviño (Skoda) climbed to the top spot on the podium.
The rally summary
The first day of the Polish rally was exciting, with a tight battle at the top and constant changes in the lead. The first was Tänak, followed by his teammate Mikkelsen. Mārtiņš Sesks (M-Sport Ford) surprised from the beginning, was in second place for some time, and ended the opening day in fifth place.
The cancellation of SS3 (Wieliczki 1) was registered when only Neuville and Evans had completed the stage, due to unsafe positioning of spectators. In the afternoon of Friday, Rovanperä took the lead in SS5 (Stańczyki 2).
The next two stages were affected: SS6 was interrupted and then resumed, while SS7 was cancelled due to incorrect location of fans. In SS6, Mikkelsen regained the lead, with Rovanperä dropping to third behind Evans, whom he recovered against in SS8 (Mikołajki Arena 2).
Saturday was almost a one-way street: Rovanperä won six out of the seven stages contested, but the day ended completely open, with Mikkelsen in second at 9.4s and Evans in third at 9.4s. Fourmaux already had a very solid fourth place by then, and Sesks was fighting with Neuville to maintain the top five.
It was in this context that the final day began, with four more stages. Mikkelsen’s puncture in SS16 ended up making Rovanperä more comfortable, and the Finn did not waste the opportunity.
After Solberg led the first stage in WRC2, Pajari became the protagonist of the category from SS2 onwards. First, he fought against the local man, Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda), but the Polish driver had an off-road incident in SS11 (Czarne) that took him out of contention.
Virves was the rival who followed Pajari, more than 20 seconds behind, but conceded second place in SS15 (Czarne 2) when overtaken by Solberg. He managed to regain the position, but lost it for good with a puncture in SS18. Virves secured third place in the final WRC2 standings, and second in the WRC2 Challenger, in the ultimate stage. This dashed Gryazin’s podium hopes, after the Bulgarian fought for that goal until the end.
In WRC3, Matulka dominated a good part of the Rally Poland, in which he competed at home. However, since Saturday afternoon, he lost a lot of time and eventually yielded to Domínguez Jr., who sealed the victory with a strong performance on Sunday. Bruun completed the podium and was one of those who managed to win stages. Kremer dominated the WRC Masters Cup overwhelmingly: he already had a 46.4s lead after SS2, and despite some fluctuations, he always had a significant advantage over his pursuers, never putting the victory at risk. Sołowow finished second, while Triviño completed the podium after losing second position to the Pole at the beginning of Saturday.
Final top ten:
