Kalle Rovanperä has been drafted in to replace Sébastien Ogier at this week’s Rally Poland.
The Frenchman was ruled out of round seven after a road accident on Tuesday morning. He remains in hospital for continued observation overnight.
DirtFish understands the team contacted the reigning world champion quickly to ask if he would be available to step in for Ogier. The team simultaneously began talking to both the governing body of world motorsport, the FIA, and WRC Promoter about drafting in the Finn.
The FIA’s sporting regulations state one member of the crew can be changed after entries close with the permission of the organizers and before administrative checks begin. To change both members of a crew requires the authority of the FIA, per article 22.4 of the WRC sporting regulations.
Rally Poland stewards confirmed Rovanperä’s participation with a bulletin issued at 2035 local time.
The decision stated: “The Stewards authorise the change of Crew and Car No. 17 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais with the crew Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen and changing the competition number to Car No. 69.”
Rovanperä has also been granted a waiver to complete the recce for the event in an additional time, running into Thursday morning.
The last time Poland ran as a WRC round, Rovanperä was too young to compete in the world championship and while he has plenty of experience of rallying on the fast Baltic roads, he has never tackled this week’s Mikołajki-based event.
