Rovanpera recovering from back and rib injuries sustained in Rally Finland shunt

The Finn was leading his home round of the competition from Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Elfyn Evans when he crashed out approximately 11.1 kilometres into the ‘Myhinpää 2’ test, leaving his GR Yaris Rally1 on its roof.

Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen managed to extract themselves from the car and both were understood to OK but tender following routine medical checks when they returned to the service park in Jyvaskyla .

The car itself had to be retired such was the damage incurred in the accident, which spelt an end to the pair’s involvement and meant they registered their first no-score of the current campaign.

Alongside his World Rally commitments, Rovanpera has been taking on rounds of the European Drift Masters Series, with the penultimate fixture taking place in Germany next weekend.

The 22-year-old was originally amongst the confirmed starters but has confirmed he will no longer be attending.

“Not so good news!”, he wrote in a social media post. “Unfortunately I need to skip Drift Masters Grand Prix round 5 Germany.

“I hurt my ribs and back in the Rally Finland crash a bit and now to fully recover for the next rallies I decided that we need to skip the next event. I tried to drive a bit few days ago, but it was a bit too painful.

“We will come back to drifting at the final DMEC round in Poland which is gonna be crazy! See you there,” he added.

Rovanpera and Halttunen will reconvene the defence of their World Rally Championship titles at Acropolis Rally Greece, which takes place from September 7-10. The remainder of the calendar is made up of Rally Chile, the all-new Central European Rally, and Rally Japan.