Kalle Rovanperä was so close to the World Rally Championship win he’s always wanted.
Released from the shackles of juggling world title aspirations to chase individual rally glory, Rovanperä looked more determined than ever to conquer his home event, Secto Rally Finland, this year.
Fighting both his Toyota team-mates Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier at points during the weekend, the reigning world champion proved too strong for either, so a third successive WRC victory and 15th of his career looked guaranteed.
That was until a rock in the line of SS19 sent him off the road and into the trees – dreams in tatters along with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
Rovanperä's latest Rally Finland was by far the hardest to take
While drivers may always pretend otherwise, there is undeniably something special about winning at home. For Rovanperä, the disappointment was palpable as DirtFish spoke to him at the scene of the crime.
As a world champion, that pressure only increases. If a driver can beat the world’s best over the course of a gruelling season, why can’t they do so at home?
Well, the vast majority of them have. In fact, of the 19 drivers to have won the World Rally Championship, just two other than Rovanperä (so far) have failed to win their home round of the championship.
Petter Solberg
Norway was only included in the WRC twice, including in 2009 (pictured)
While neighboring Sweden has been a mainstay of the WRC calendar, Norway has only ever been on the schedule twice – and sadly for Petter Solberg that was once his peak glory years had passed.
First introduced to the calendar in 2007, the first Rally Norway was dominated by Ford as Mikko Hirvonen expertly fended off team leader Marcus Grönholm.
Petter found himself in a fight with brother Henning for the final step on the podium, but the Subaru driver would miss out to his older brother by just 16.5s.
Although the result was poorer, Solberg’s performance was more heroic on Norway’s second and final WRC appearance in 2009 as, in the wake of Subaru’s WRC exit, it was his first event driving a Citroën Xsara WRC for his own team.
Sensationally, Solberg was quickest on the opening superspecial but faded to sixth at the end of the rally.
He can also count himself unfortunate to be on this list, as it took several other world champions more than two starts to win their home event.
Walter Röhrl
Röhrl never won in Germany, but nor did he get the chance to compete there in the WRC
Perhaps not as unfortunate as Walter Röhrl though, who never even got the chance to compete at home in the WRC let alone win at home.
The German rewrote the history books in the early 1980s with his ultra-precise driving style, becoming the first ever double world champion in 1982.
He claimed some epic victories – not least in that famous 1983 season for Lancia vs his future employer Audi – but with Röhrl calling time on his WRC career in 1987 he was 15 years too short from competing at home.
Rally Germany was added to the calendar in 2002 and, save for event rotation forcing it off in 2009, remained there until 2019.
Sébastien Loeb has comfortably the most victories there with nine, ahead of Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tänak who are tied on three. Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo both have one apiece.
Most prolific world champions at home:
7 wins: Marcus Grönholm
6 wins: Didier Auriol, Sébastien Loeb
5 wins: Stig Blomqvist
4 wins: Hannu Mikkola, Tommi Mäkinen, Sébastien Ogier
3 wins: Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion, Colin McRae, Richard Burns
2 wins: Björn Waldegård, Ari Vatanen, Timo Salonen, Carlos Sainz
1 win: Ott Tänak
