Kalle Rovanper of Finland won the World Rally Championship for the third time in a row. He left Toyota England teammate Elfyn Evans by 15 seconds in Portugal to consolidate his overall lead in the championship. The third Spaniard, Dani Sordo with a Hyundai, was more than two minutes behind, Martin Prokop finishing sixteenth.
At the start of the weekend, Rovanperä lost nearly 20 seconds to Evans, but then he narrowed the lead to the vice-world champion and overtook him in the penultimate stage on Saturday.
In the final stages, he increased the distance by six seconds in the rain and fog, and he was helped by three wins. He leads Belgium’s Thierry Neuville with 46 points in the current World Cup run.
“The conditions were very difficult at times, but the car went perfectly as usual,” the 21-year-old Finn, who this year also won in Sweden and Croatia, said on the WC website.
” Hats off to Kall . On the one hand we are disappointed , on the other hand happy to be here again on the podium , ” said Evans , who triumphed in Portugal last year .
The fight for third place got even tighter, which Sordo eventually won by a margin of two seconds. In the last special stage, he overtook Takamoto Kacuta from Japan, who could cement Toyota’s supremacy on the Portuguese pebbles.
In this year’s debut at the World Championships, Martin Prokop won sixteenth place. Young compatriot Erik Cais suffered heavy losses following Friday’s draw and is in the top ten of the leaderboard.
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