Rovanperä ‘relieved’ by his return to form

It’s come three months later than perhaps we all expected, but the Kalle Rovanperä show is back on the road.

Six stages; six scratch times. The two-time world champion didn’t give anyone else a look-in across Friday at Rally Islas Canarias.

Leading Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier by a handsome 26.8 seconds at the end of the first leg, the Finn shunned any previous talk of ‘tire struggles’ or adaptation to the tweaked regulations.

Turning in what was comfortably his best day performance so far in 2025 was arguably needed given he trails the championship leader by 57 points. But was it also a relief?

“Of course it’s always a nice feeling when you get everything right,” Rovanperä told DirtFish. “Of course you always know it’s there, but if you cannot do it, it’s a bit… not so nice feeling and when you finally can do it again, it’s good.

“It has been quite a long time since we have been on this kind of pace, so it feels good.”

Things perhaps haven’t been as perfect as the timesheets would suggest. Rovanperä wasn’t so happy with his driving at times in the morning, but he cut a far more confident figure than seen at recent rounds when analyzing his day back in Las Palmas.

“For sure we had a few stages that didn’t feel so good, but then overall yeah, every time I was pretty sure that I didn’t leave much there and I didn’t do any mistakes,” he added.

“On these kind of roads, it’s not so much about pushing super hard, it’s just having the flow and keeping it clean and yeah, we had quite a clean day.”

Have his circuit racing exploits helped?

“Well it looks like the driving is pretty much like circuit what I’m doing and it seems to work so, maybe yeah.”

Rovanperä did not feel he had proved any kind of point with his speed, but did impress his team-mates Ogier and Elfyn Evans who lie second and third overnight.

Evans: “Of course, it’s a great position for the team at the moment, but on a personal level, obviously, I always want more. A bit frustrated, obviously, with how the day’s unfolded, let’s say, and just not able to get that last bit of turning I really would like in the car.

“The other guys have the same tools and they can drive around it, so you have to admit when you’re beat and that’s it.”

Ogier added: “It’s still been positive, after three months not racing, being on a still a strong rhythm. But yeah, unfortunately for me one man was just flying today and killing everybody, so well done to him and Jonne [Halttunen].

“Kalle and Jonne have been very impressive.”

Ogier won’t give up the chase, but with a near half-minute deficit – and just 9.6s in hand over Evans – the Frenchman conceded Rovanperä is realistically out of reach.

“It’s not the plan to go stupidly crazy tomorrow and try to catch him, because at the moment if you are realistic, he’s a bit untouchable,” he said.

“So the plan first is getting closer to his rhythm. And I think probably the fight for me at the moment is more with Elfyn than with Kalle.”