Greek gravel classic the next test for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team will look to defend its unbeaten run through another hot and rough gravel challenge when the legendary Acropolis Rally in Greece hosts round seven of the 2025 season on June 26-29.

After achieving back-to-back gravel wins in Portugal and Sardinia with Sébastien Ogier at the wheel, the GR YARIS Rally1 now faces another tough test in Greece. The Acropolis runs earlier in the year this season, having been held in September since it returned to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2021, and the new date in the middle of summer brings the possibility of harsher conditions for cars, tyres and drivers.

As well as leading the manufacturers’ championship by 69 points, TGR-WRT continues to occupy the top three places in the drivers’ standings; Elfyn Evans leads Ogier by 19 points and Kalle Rovanperä by 20. Alongside this trio nominated to compete for manufacturers’ points, Takamoto Katsuta once more drives a fourth silver GR YARIS Rally1 while Sami Pajari pilots a fifth car under the TGR-WRT2 banner.

The GR Yaris Rally2 is again well represented with 10 cars entered in Greece, where it won the WRC2 class last year in the hands of Pajari. Oliver Solberg, like Ogier, will arrive off the back of wins in both Portugal and Sardinia and is registered to score WRC2 points in Greece with the Printsport team. He is joined by Jan Solans and Alejandro Cachón of Teo Martín Motorsport, Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Rallylab Technology), Marco and Bruno Bulacia (Delta Rally), TGR WRC Challenge Program duo Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure, RedGrey’s Georg Linnamäe and privateer Fabio Schwarz.

This year the rally returns to the Greek capital Athens for a start ceremony and opening super special in the heart of the city on Thursday evening. Friday’s action begins to the west with three stages on familiar roads around Loutraki, which then hosts a remote service before three further tests are tackled on the route back north to the service park in Lamia. This includes the Stiri stage, last driven in 1997. Saturday is the rally’s longest day, made up of a loop of three stages south of Lamia to be run twice, either side of mid-day service. Two stages north-west of Lamia will run twice either side of service on Sunday; the brand-new Smokovo and well-known Tarzan, the second pass of which serves as the rally-ending Power Stage.

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“Sardinia was a great rally for the team and it’s giving us a good feeling for the Acropolis, which can be a similarly demanding event. We learned a lot in Sardinia as we try to improve the car and the drivability, and we had an important test in Greece last week with all the drivers as we look to make another step in the knowledge that our competition is also working hard. Greece can suit our drivers well, as the roads there are a bit wider and faster than in Sardinia, and opening the road is usually not quite as tough. Still, there will be some cleaning to do for Elfyn, Seb and Kalle, and they will need a very good Friday to keep themselves in the fight for the rest of the rally. Taka and Sami also showed promising performance in Sardinia and that’s giving them more confidence for Greece.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“The Acropolis is another of the tougher gravel rallies on the calendar with a hard and rocky base and a lot of loose rocks. We’re going there at a different time of year to usual, so it has the potential to be very hot and demanding for the cars and the tyres. We also know we will face the familiar challenges opening the road on the Friday, when there are a lot of stages run only once. Our performance was stronger in Sardinia and we’re hoping we’ve made some further improvements in testing and can be more competitive again in Greece.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“In Sardinia we were able to find some good pace and score quite a lot of points in the end, and hopefully we can continue like this for Greece. It’s a rally that has been quite good for us in the past and we’ll try to fight for another strong result. The style of the stages and the surface are a bit different to Sardinia, and it can be harder for the tyres if you’re pushing hard. But we had a chance to test in Greece last week to try and work on this and keep improving the car for these conditions, and this should help us to be prepared.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“Sardinia was a very positive weekend for us and I was back in the car two days later to test for Greece and to try and confirm the good progress we made with the setup. The challenges in Greece are not so different, with high temperatures and a rough and rocky surface, and hopefully we can be strong once more in these conditions. It could again be a challenging Friday for the team with our road positions, and this time I’ll be running second so it might be even harder to win this one, but I’m never afraid of any challenge so let’s see what we can do.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I’m looking forward to going back to Greece. Last year I had good speed there and this time I’m aiming for a better result. Sardinia was a difficult rally but by the end we had good speed, and we were able to find an even better feeling in the car during our pre-event test in Greece last week. The Acropolis is never an easy rally because you need to be able to take care of the car and the tyres, and there will be some new stages again this year. But having confidence in the car always makes it easier to start and I will give my best.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It’s really helpful for me to have these gravel rallies back-to-back to build up the experience and confidence. In Portugal we could have a nice clean rally, and then in Sardinia the pace was coming more naturally, so hopefully we can continue like this for Greece. Like with Sardinia, I have some good memories of winning WRC2 there last year. At the same time, on rough rallies like these you need to be very careful in the lower categories to look after the car, whereas the Rally1 car can handle a lot more, so you need to learn to trust it and get used to being able to push harder.”

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