How Rovanpera underlined his superiority in winning his second WRC title

Toyota's young superstar didn’t win as many rounds in 2023 as he did during his first title campaign, but Kalle Rovanpera did add new elements to an impressive game as he successfully defended the crown. Here's how he conquered the World Rally Championship in arguably even more impressive fashion

Published Jan 8, 2024, 3:35 PM

Rewriting the record books to win a maiden World Rally Championship title is difficult, but to find the resolve to repeat the feat the following year is even harder. It’s a task only six drivers in WRC history have achieved – an exclusive club that now includes the mercurial Kalle Rovanpera.

The WRC’s new superstar underlined his once-in-a-generation talent with his 2022 domination and, with the competition raising the bar, Rovanpera was arguably even more impressive in 2023. The Finn added relentless consistency and mature, clever driving of his Toyota to his already impressive repertoire to win the championship, as the WRC delivered an unforgettable season of incredible highs and the most shattering of lows.

Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.