Kalle Rovanpera says it will take time to realise the enormity of his latest World Rally Championship victory in Poland as a last-minute replacement with limited preparation.

Toyota’s reigning world champion was drafted in to replace Sebastien Ogier for the gravel rally after the eight-time world champion escaped serious injury in a road traffic crash while preparing pacenotes for the event.

Rovanpera was servicing his jet ski and co-driver Jonne Halttunen was getting a tattoo in Estonia when they received a call from Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala to jump on a flight to Poland on Tuesday night.

The pair headed to Poland without the usual preparation of a pre-event test or studying on-board videos beforehand and had to undergo a rushed recce of the stages. Despite the challenges, Rovanpera claimed victory by 28.3s from Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.

“For sure, it [the win] doesn’t feel so different now because we have been working all of the time and it is just the result of the hard work but later on I will realise [what I have done].

“I’m just quite tired at the moment. I’m just happy to be here at the end it was quite tough.

“I have to say I wasn’t really expecting much and of course, every time you put the helmet on you try to do your best.

“I had a chance you always have a chance, but you have to count on yourself, but I knew it would be difficult for sure. You need to keep going and trying all the time.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Rovanpera admitted at times it was scary going into the stages without his usual more detailed preparation, but pinpointed overcoming tiredness as the toughest aspect of the week.

The 23-year-old revealed that he fell asleep on his laptop during the week after staying up late working on his pacenotes.   

“I think the biggest challenge was that I just had no sleep and already coming into the weekend I was quite tired,” he added.

“I didn’t sleep well the weekend before and on Monday, I was watching NHL finals with my friend and the next morning I was waking up for the recce.

“On the driving side, it was the first pass [of stages that were tricky] trying to push and leave a margin because there were a few places where we were surprised, which was expected. 

“It was not so easy to push hard as you need to choose where to take the risk.

“I have to say it was quite clever [the way we drove]. We didn’t make any mistakes, and everything went our way.”

Rovanpera will now head straight from Poland to Imola tonight for a Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux test at 8am on Monday morning.

Kalle Rovanpera expects to face a “big challenge” to prepare for Rally Poland after receiving a last-minute call up to replace Sebastien Ogier while he was repairing his jet ski.

Toyota has drafted in Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen to pilot the team’s third GR Yaris in Poland, which returns to the World Rally Championship calendar for the first time since 2017 this week, after Ogier and Vincent Landais were involved in a road traffic accident while preparing pacenotes and withdrew from the event.

Double world champion Rovanpera, contesting a partial schedule of events this year, was preparing to go out on the lake on his jet ski when he was asked by the team to come to Poland after Toyota sought permission from the FIA to field the Finnish pair.

It has since been confirmed that all involved in the accident have undergone scans which showed no signs of serious injury. Landais was discharged from hospital yesterday, while Ogier remained under medical observation overnight before being released today.

“It was strange day yesterday, but first of all it was good to hear by midday that Seb and Vincent were fine which is the main thing,” said Rovanpera.

“Then I got the call from Kaj [Lindstrom, Toyota sporting director] while I was changing some spark plugs on my jet ski before going on the lake, then he called, and I knew what it was about.

“The team made the call for us to come here and of course myself and Jonne were not prepared at all, so it was not an easy decision to come here.

“But of course we want to help the team as much as we can with the team points; they are crucial this year, so hopefully we can do that.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Rovanpera jumped on plane to Poland last night to be able take part in today’s recce, which will see him navigate through all of the rally’s stages in little over 24 hours before the event begins on Thursday night.

When asked about the enormity of the challenge to prepare for a rally in such a short space of time, he added: “It is quite a big challenge.

“We basically need to do a whole rally almost in one day and, of course, not watching any videos before will be quite a tough evening and tomorrow trying to learn what we can. It will not be easy with this schedule.

“It is really difficult to know what can be possible [this weekend], as we haven’t had a test in the car before this rally.

“We need to see at the shakedown if we are in a correct way.

“It depends how good we can do the recce and stuff.

“Normally in a rally like this I would like to fight for the win, but maybe this weekend it is not so easy to do.

“Of course we will try to do our best and bring some good points for the team.”