World Rally champion Kalle Rovanperä has elected to skip next weekend’s Drift Masters event in Germany due to rib and back injuries sustained in his Rally Finland crash.
A week ago today, Rovanperä was leading his home round of the World Rally Championship despite running first on the road, but was caught out on SS8 and rolled his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 end-over-end.
That spelt an early end to his weekend, but Rovanperä admitted that even if his Toyota was able to be fixed for Saturday and Sunday’s legs, he may have struggled to compete with sore ribs.
Alongside his WRC commitments, the 22-year-old has been taking part in the European Drift Masters series in a GR Supra this year, and was scheduled to compete in Germany (August 17-19).
But in a social media statement on Friday, Rovanperä confirmed he will sit the penultimate round out as he looks to recuperate for upcoming rallies.
“Not so good news! Unfortunately I need to skip Drift Masters Grand Prix round five in Germany,” he said.
“I hurt my ribs and back in the Rally Finland crash a bit and now to fully recover for the next rallies I decided that we need to skip the next event.
“I tried to drive a bit a few days ago, but it was a bit too painful.
“We will come back to drifting at the final DMEC round in Poland which is gonna be crazy! See you there!”
Luckily for Rovanperä, the next round of the WRC is still four weeks away. Acropolis Rally Greece runs from September 7-10.
He is currently on course for a second successive world title, with a 25-point lead over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
