Kalle Rovanpera says that his plan is to avoid mistakes and not to take too many pressure in Portugal and believes that opening the gravel roads will be a new challenge for him.
The Finn driver completed his Portugal test with the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 last week and spent one day inside his car.
He will start first on the road on Friday stages which means that he has to clean the road for the drivers who will start after him and it must be mentioned that the competition will be very high as Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb will make their second outing this season.
Rovanpera is heading to Rally de Portugal with a 29-point lead on the driver's championship as he has 76 points whereas Thierry Neuville follows him with 47 points.
"The feeling with the new car on gravel has been quite good overall, especially in our pre-event test last week with some improvements made from before", Rovanpera said.
"Portugal is a rally that I usually like; the stages are nice and technical and there is a great atmosphere.
"For us, the road-cleaning will probably be the biggest challenge, especially as it’s something quite new for us.
"Friday could be much more important than on other rallies and we will try to be at a good pace straightaway to remain in contention for the rest of the weekend.
"The key thing in these next rallies will be to just try to keep calm and focus on doing a good job, without taking too much pressure or making mistakes, and keep taking good points where we can".
Photo Credits: Toyota
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