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Kalle Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Haltunnen have completed Estonia’s fourth FIA World Rally Championship event with their third consecutive victory on the country’s high-speed gravel stages.
Driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid, Finn Rovanpera beat Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi, who finished second and third respectively in their Hyundai i20 N Rally 1 Hybrids.
“For the championship it’s a really important place to get good points, that was the plan,” said the 22-year-old Finn, who won by 52.7s. “It’s my favourite event on the calendar, I knew I had to push and it went well. Big thanks to the team, the car was very fast. I really love this rally.”
Andreas Mikkelsen took the FIA WRC2 victory alongside co-driver Torstein Eriksen in a Toksport WRT-run Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. The Norwegian said: “We took the clever approach this weekend, we had a constant speed, we had a gap and we tried to maintain that as good as possible.”
Report to follow.
Rally EstoniaWRC
SEASON 2023SportRallies1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2023Rally Estonia01Sunday, July 23, 2023 – 1:08pmSunday, July 23, 2023 – 1:08pm
From lights out to the chequered flag, Zak O’Sullivan was in complete control throughout the 19 laps of action at the Hungaroring. Nailing his getaway and extending his lead lap-by-lap, the Briton secured his third win of the 2023 campaign, elevating him up five places into the Championship hunt and second in the Standings.
Dino Beganovic ran his own race, finishing comfortably in second to complete a 1-2 finish for PREMA Racing. MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto got the move done in the opening phase from fourth on the grid to complete the podium in third.
AS IT HAPPENED
O’Sullivan wasted no time breaking clear out front, bolting off the line to cover off his teammate Beganovic on the run down into Turn 1. The Swede’s attention was on his mirrors to keep Leonardo Fornaroli at bay.
Oliver Goethe tried to swoop around the outside of Colapinto, but the MP Motorsport driver fought back to cling on to fourth. Having lost P6 off the line, Paul Aron muscled his way past Jonny Edgar through Turn 3.
Gabriel Bortoleto found himself in a DRS train early on but utilised the slipstream to breeze past Jonny Edgar for seventh on Lap 6.
After a disappointing Qualifying, Josep María Martí was on a redemption charge from 13th on the grid. The Spaniard moved up into the points, quickly dispatching Campos Racing teammate Christian Mansell along with Edgar on Lap 8 to move up into eighth.
Colapinto wrestled the final spot on the podium away from Fornaroli on Lap 9, sending a move up the inside and forcing the Italian to defend from fellow Trident driver Goethe.
One lap later and the #6 car got the job done, as Goethe swept around the outside at Turn 2, with Fornaroli then dropping further back behind Aron and into sixth on Lap 12.
Championship rivals Bortoleto and Martí squared off against each other for seventh. The #23 Campos tried to pass the Brazilian at Turn 1, but a huge lock-up send him sailing wide across the run-off. Eventually able to get through later that lap, he then cleared a second Trident in quick succession, stealing the apex at Turn 2 to relieve Fornaroli of sixth.
Edgar began hounding Mansell at the tail end of the points. Mansell suffered a lock up into Turn 1 on Lap 18, allowing the Briton to breeze through, with his MP teammate Mari Boya taking advantage to demote him out of the top 10.
With just three laps remaining, Bortoleto didn’t face a hard fight as he overtook teammate Fornaroli for seventh.
Out front, O’Sullivan had been in a league of his own, extending his advantage lap-by-lap to take the win by 2.3 seconds to Beganovic and equal the all-time winning record in Formula 3, with his third victory of the season and fourth in F3. Colapinto finished 6.8 seconds clear of fourth-placed Goethe.
Aron claimed back-to-back top five finishes, as Martí’s storming charge was rewarded with sixth ahead of Bortoleto. Edgar wrestled eighth away from Fornaroli on the final lap, as Boya rounded out the top 10 points scorers.
KEY QUOTE – Zak O’Sullivan, PREMA Racing
“A really good race, tyre degradation has been really high all weekend, so it was kind of a race of management. As a team we’ve had really good pace all weekend, so I built a gap early on. It got a bit tricky towards the end as the tyres started to fall off, but an awesome weekend for myself and the team with a 1-2. Looking forward to Spa.”
THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Gabriel Bortoleto stands on the cusp of Championship glory as his 13th consecutive points-scoring finish moves him up to 144 points. Zak O’Sullivan is now his nearest rival, with victory increasing the PREMA Racing driver’s tally to 101, nudging one point ahead of Josep María Martí. Paul Aron remains in fourth, tied with teammate Dino Beganovic on 94.
PREMA Racing have taken back control of the Teams’ Standings with a 15-point advantage on 289. Trident drop to second on 274, whilst Hitech Pulse-Eight extend their stay in third on 154.
UP NEXT
The 2023 Formula 3 grid are straight back into action next weekend, as the Championship heads to Spa-Francorchamps for Round 9 from 28-30 July.
Formula 3F3
SEASON 2023SportCircuit1SportFIA Formula 3 ChampionshipCircuitF3SEASON 2023Formula 300Sunday, July 23, 2023 – 11:56amSunday, July 23, 2023 – 11:56am