‘Cleaning’ job for flying Finn

Kalle Rovanpera¨ might be within a whisker of winning this year’s World Rally Championship, but he faces the prospect of a frustrating few days around Auckland.

Rovanpera¨, who turns 22 tomorrow but still has the appearance of a 15-year-old, needs to pick up eight more points than Ott Ta¨nak this weekend to take the title.

The Rally started yesterday evening with the ceremonial super special stage through the Auckland Domain.

The Finn has won four of the 10 rallies this season, with two more to go after Rally NZ, in Spain and Japan.

But his lead in the championship will be his biggest disadvantage around Auckland as under WRC rules he’ll be the first car on each stage today and on New Zealand gravel roads, that means sweeping them clean in his Toyota Yaris for the cars behind him.

Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal, Jari-matti Latvala, who won Rally NZ in 2010, says Ravanpera¨ will be praying for rain, to reduce that cleaning factor.

‘‘It is dependent on the weather,’’ Latvala said. ‘‘Normally in the Raglan area, Whaanga Coast, they have a lot of loose gravel and also on the Te Akau stages.

‘‘When you have to clean the roads, that’s when you lose the most. So Kalle is in a difficult position for sure. If it rains, it might combine the surface together and it’s better and will be more equal.

‘‘But the good thing is we have Sebastian Ogier here, who is starting further back and he’ll have a chance to fight for the victory if Kalle and Elfyn [Evans] are suffering too much.’’

Rain isn’t scheduled to arrive until after the stages are completed today, while the forecast for tomorrow is atrocious.

Whoever is leading after today, opens the road on the stages tomorrow, but with the poor weather, they won’t have that gravel cleaning issue.

Also, there are only 88km of stages tomorrow, compared to 158km today.

‘‘It would have been nice to have more stages on Saturday, because now Friday is the key, most of the kilometres are on Friday and Kalle is opening the road, so it’s a tough job, but that’s the way it is,’’ Latvala said.

Rovanpera¨ had a terrible time in the recent rallies in Belgium and Greece, where he was involved in incidents, but Latvala doesn’t feel his young prote´ge´e is suffering from nerves.

‘‘Kalle has had an incredible season up until Rally Finland. I knew that at some point the mistake would happen. It came in Belgium,’’ he said.

‘‘In Greece it was a frustrating situation. Everything had gone wrong in the test, then when we came into the event we didn’t have the performance.

‘‘That wasn’t easy for Kalle and the other drivers. But we’ve learned and know what we did wrong.

‘‘So here, we should be competitive and that’s why I’m not worried about Kalle’s mental side, he’s very strong mentally.’’

Because of the road cleaning situation, there is more chance of someone who starts later today being the eventual winner.

That plays into the hands of eight-time world champion Ogier, who is competing on a part-time basis this year, and also Britain’s Gus Greensmith as the M-sport Ford Puma is showing more pace lately.

‘‘The characteristics of the stages are something I’ve never seen,’’ Greensmith said. ‘‘I’ve never seen anything as beautiful as this.

‘‘I’m sure having a lot of mileage on the Friday, which looks to be the driest day of the rally, is going to help us for sure.

‘‘I don’t think we need to do anything stupid.

‘‘In New Zealand, a big part of it is being clean and tidy. So that’s what we’re focused on.’’

For Thierry Neuville, who won Rally Greece earlier this month, he isn’t looking any further than making the podium in New Zealand.