The 2022 World Rally Championship season marked the start of a brand new period for the collection. Out went common inner combustion engines, and in got here the brand new period of hybrid rally automobiles below the Rally1 set of laws. After some preliminary worries about whether or not they could be quick sufficient, the brand new automobiles proved to be simply as quick and as spectacular as their predecessors. It marked a brand new period in one other manner too, as Sebastien Ogier had retired from full-time competitors within the collection after 2021 to take up a part-time schedule.
After loads of hypothesis about who could be the quickest in 2022 it was M-Sport Ford that took the primary win of the season in Monte Carlo. Nevertheless, it might show to be a dominant season for the Toyota Gazoo Racing workforce and its driver Kalle Rovanpera. The younger Finnish driver would dominate the season and sweep to his first world title with two rounds to spare at Rally New Zealand, capping off a very dominant season from them and Toyota with their GR Yaris Rally 1. It was one very particular season for driver and workforce.
A Returning Legend And A Dominant Toyota
9-time world champion Sebastien Loeb would return to the collection for a part-time schedule in 2022, driving for the M-Sport workforce and he joined Ogier in battle on the first spherical in Monte Carlo, who continues to be with Toyota. It was although Loeb that will prevail in a troublesome and intense battle with Ogier, with the latter struggling a puncture on the penultimate stage plus a penalty for a jump-start on the ability stage. It made Loeb the oldest driver to win a WRC occasion, and co-driver Isabelle Galmiche turned the primary feminine winner of a WRC fixture since 1997.
Whereas it bode properly for Ford and M-Sport that they have been within the battle, the following few rounds have been all about Rovanpera. The Finn and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen put in a superb run in Rally Sweden, regardless of them sweeping the free snow on the primary stage. Rovanpera would take the victory and this could arrange a exceptional run. Rovanpera would go on to win in Rally Croatia and in Rally de Portugal too to take a hat-trick of victories and emerge because the title favourite.
Rivals Hit Again However With Little Left To Give
Spherical 5 would lastly see one other producer take victory, as Ott Tanak within the Hyundai put a troublesome begin to the yr behind him to take victory for Hyundai in Rally Italia Sardegna. Rovanpera would end fifth in that occasion, as he tried to be as constant as potential on the times through which he couldn’t win. It was clear although that the Toyota was one of the best automotive within the subject, with Hyundai struggling early within the season and M-Sport let down by unhealthy luck that knocked Loeb out of main positions and different driver errors.
Rovanpera would cement his authority on the championship nonetheless with back-to-back wins in Rally Kenya and Rally Estonia, making it a query of when, not if, he would win his first WRC title. Tanak would finally turn into the closest factor Rovanpera needed to a title rival, taking a podium in his residence occasion of Rally Estonia. Tanak would take one other victory on the high-octane rally Finland however Rovanpera was in a position to end in second place. The one main drama got here on the subsequent occasion in Ypres, when Rovanpera had a horror present and solely completed in eight place as Tanak received once more and Elfyn Evans and Esapekka Lappi accomplished the rostrum of their Toyotas.
Rovanpera Places The World Title Out Of Attain
Thierry Neuville would take victory within the Acropolis Rally Greece making it his first win of the season, with Rovanpera solely seventh and Tanak second. Nevertheless, it was too little too late for the Finn’s rivals as on the subsequent spherical in Rally New Zealand, he took the title with a shocking victory, incomes his first WRC crown with two rounds to spare. We have been then handled to an unimaginable battle between Ogier and Rovanpera in Rally Catalunya, as Ogier confirmed the world he was maybe nonetheless the grasp to beat the brand new world champion, and exhibiting simply how good the Yaris has been in 2022. That occasion additionally noticed Toyota wrap up the producer’s title with a spherical to spare.
A Really Dominant Season For Toyota And Rovanpera
Toyota as a complete have received seven of the 12 occasions ran to this point with one rally nonetheless to go, and also you wouldn’t wager towards one in every of their drivers successful the ultimate spherical in Japan, their residence occasion. Rovanpera has put collectively a very gorgeous WRC season to take a vastly spectacular title at such a younger age. The Finn is simply 22 years previous, which makes you surprise what he may go on to attain. Toyota has been the category of the sector to this point within the WRC’s hybrid period, and their rivals actually have to play catch up heading into 2023.