By OUR CORRESPONDENT
Two time World champion Kalle Rovanperä is ready to shift gears and put a steady start to the season behind him as he sets his sights on next month’s WRC Safari Rally Kenya.
The two-time WRC champion sits third in the standings after a fourth-place finish at Rallye Monte-Carlo and fifth in Sweden. Adapting his GR Yaris Rally1 to the new Hankook tyres has proven trickier than expected, but the Finn remains optimistic as the WRC prepares for its first long-haul event of 2025.
“Now we need to focus on the next rally on gravel with a completely different tyre and work to be stronger there. Sweden was a difficult weekend — we were trying to push hard but just didn’t have the pace or performance we wanted.
,” said Rovanperä.
He added: “We have one day of testing before Safari. I don’t know about the specification for the tyre, which one it will be. It’s another new thing [to be running on the gravel-spec Hankook] and we have to see how it goes. There’s not really much we can do to prepare before the test, I just hope it’s going to be working more in a way which works for me.”
Despite the early-season challenges, Rovanperä can heads to Naivasha brimming with confidence thanks to his impressive Safari record — two wins and a runner-up finish in the past three years.
