Latvala says Rovanperä’s crash was inevitable

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s team principal Jari-Matti Latvala spoke with the media after the current FIA World Rally Championship points leader Kalle Rovanperä crashed out early this morning at the start of the 2022 Ypres Rally.

Rovanperä has until today had a trouble-free season and not crashed since his home round of Rally Finland last season, Latvala who has spoken with the American publication DirtFish.com, says the crash was inevitable.

Rovanperä rolled his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 on a left-hander at the SS2 of Westouter-Boeschepe 1 because he understeered and couldn´t save it in time, the car is retired from the rally and Latvala has also confirmed that Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen are ok.

“That’s the main thing, it was quite an impact to the front and then rolling, but always when it’s rolling it’s not so bad because the worse situation is like if you hit the tree or a stone, it’s actually a sudden stop,” Latvala told DirtFish.com.

“So always when it’s rolling it’s softer for the drivers. It looks like it starts to understeer and then starts to go wide. But it’s unlucky that there’s a hole, he hits the hole, because otherwise there was no ditch later on in the field and immediately basically you have to pay the penalty. But this is typical here. There are normally very, very steep and sharp ditches which really when you hit them it’s the end of the game.”

Eight out of the thirteen rounds so far have been perfect for Rovanperä and Latvala agrees there´s no way a driver can do a whole season without crashing: “But for me, if you look at this, Kalle has done eight rallies this year, eight really good results. OK, Monte was slightly difficult at the beginning but still at the end he got really good points. In every championship, every winner makes at least one mistake per season. You can’t do 13 races perfect without mistake, this hasn’t happened with [Sébastien] Ogier or with Loeb and I knew already that it’s a matter of time when this will happen and unfortunately it happened here. It will have come at some point.”