FRC Kitee: Ogata podium takes title fight to the wire

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program driver Rio Ogata finished a close second in his class in the penultimate round of the Finnish Rally Championship at Ralli Kitee.

Kanta Yanaguida retired two stages from the finish due to a technical issue but continues to lead the championship standings in the SM2 class for Rally3 machinery by a reduced margin of six points over Ogata. With only one round remaining in the season, it is now certain that one of the two Japanese drivers will win the title.

Hiroya Minowa continued his learning in just his second appearance in the Finnish championship, running third in the SM3 class for Rally4 cars until he went off the road on the penultimate stage.

Information

Results (SM2 class)
1 Leevi Lassila/Juha Lummaa (Renault Clio Rally3) 48m22.8s
2 Rio Ogata/Mikael Korhonen (Renault Clio Rally3) +12.5s
3 Pekka Keski-Korsu/Hannu Lamminen (Renault Clio Rally3) +1m31.4s
4 Isak Sjökvist/Simon Lindström (Renault Clio Rally3) +1m46.5s
5 Jarmo Honkanen/Jukka Toivonen (Ford Fiesta Rally3) +7m06.6s
6 Mikko Nevalainen/Petri Silvennoinen (Renault Clio Rally3) +9m16.7s
Retired Kanta Yanaguida/Ville Mannisenmäki (Renault Clio Rally3)

Results (SM3 class)
1 Lauri Halonen/Niklas Heino (Peugeot 208 Rally4) 49m45.1s
2 Roope Hirvonen/Aleksi Marttila (Ford Fiesta Rally4) +37.9s
3 Tuomas Huikuri/Joona Rönkkö (Ford Fiesta Rally4) +3m04.1s
4 Petri Gullans/Hanna Kukkonen (Peugeot 208 Rally4) +6m52.4s
5 Jari Jaakkola/Niko Nylund (Renault Clio Rally5) +8m44.2s
Retired Hiroya Minowa/Juho Koski-Lammi (Renault Clio Rally4)

Quotes:
Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“This was another demanding round of the Finnish championship with fast stages that were challenging to make pacenotes for. Rio drove a really good and impressive rally this time. He was feeling confident already before the rally and then he was able to keep his head and still deliver a very good performance with really competitive speed. He just missed out on the victory, but these are the situations that teach you the most, when you have to fight until the very last stage. With Kanta, we need to analyse his rally very carefully. In the end he had to retire with a brake-related issue, but his pace was not at the level that he is able to do. Part of that may have come from his driving – that he was not so confident in the high-speed places – but we need to analyse if the brakes were also having an effect earlier. He still leads the championship, and we know that we’re going to have a Japanese champion in the SM2 category, which is fantastic for us and for the Program. It’s been a great season for both drivers and we’re excited to see how the fight between them turns out in the final round. Hiroya’s performance was promising here. He experienced the other side of rallying for the first time as well with his accident, but that’s part of the learning process. He still showed a step forward from his debut round, and when stages were run for the second time and he had the chance to refine his pacenotes, his speed was very good.”

Rio Ogata
“This was not a bad rally for me. Of course, it would have been even nicer if I could have won, but overall I’m satisfied with my result considering my driving. Throughout the day, my driving was stable in a good way in that it was consistent, but I also feel it was too cautious. That was working well in the morning conditions before the first service when the grip levels were a bit lower, but after that I think I could have pushed more as conditions improved. Some of the estimates in my pacenotes were also not as good as I would have liked. At least we could get some good points for the championship and that is the most positive thing. Firstly though we have asphalt rallies coming, so I’ll switch my mind and focus on those.”

Kanta Yanaguida
“This was a very difficult rally for me. In the beginning I couldn’t find a good feeling; I felt that I was somehow struggling with the braking and turning into the corners. I tried many things to improve it, and the feeling got a little better, but the stage times were still not good. Then, before SS6, I noticed a strange feeling as if the brakes were dragging. The team tried to fix it at the next service but unfortunately the problem wasn’t completely solved; we also tried to fix it on the road section to SS7, but it got worse and we had to retire. It’s possible that the problem started already in the morning and got gradually worse during the day, but I need to understand exactly why my pace was so slow and try to improve it for the next rally. It is very disappointing because we are fighting for the championship, so I really wanted a good result from this rally, and I feel sorry for everyone who has been supporting me.”

Hiroya Minowa
“I felt a really nice feeling behind the wheel on this rally. Previously, I haven’t been able to push from the first stage, but this time it felt good and I tried to push from the beginning, even if there was still quite big gap to the top drivers in the early stages. In SS4 the surface was worse than expected but we handled it pretty well and were second-fastest, so I was pleased with that. SS5 and SS6 were second-pass stages and we changed the pacenotes a bit from the first pass and improved the times so much, even though we also had to work with an intercom issue. Then in SS7 we were having quite good pace, but in one corner that was a bit tricky I ran too wide, caught the ditch and we rolled. I already know what went wrong – the pacenote was slightly too fast for this corner – and I will keep practising and try to not make the same mistake again.”

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