Ogier wins for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing in drama-filled Finnish finale

Sébastien Ogier has claimed victory for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team in a dramatic finale to its home event, Rally Finland.

After a close contest on Friday between the top three drivers from TGR-WRT’s five-car Rally1 line-up for this event, local hero Kalle Rovanperä pulled away from his competition on Saturday and looked on course to take the first home victory of his career and a third consecutive win on fast gravel roads. That was until one of the last corners of the penultimate stage on Sunday, when Rovanperä’s car hit a large rock in a high-speed left-hander and was sent crashing into the trees. Thankfully, both Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen were unhurt, demonstrating the strength of the GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID.

Ogier, along with co-driver Vincent Landais, also performed strongly on his first appearance in the FIA World Rally Championship’s fastest rally for nearly three years: there was just 0.1 seconds separating the team’s multiple world champions Rovanperä and Ogier over the 32.98 kilometres of the returning legendary Ouninpohja stage on Saturday morning. The Frenchman takes his second Rally Finland victory, his first since 2013, and joins Sébastien Loeb, Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans as the only drivers from outside Finland to win the event more than once.

Ogier also climbs up to second in the drivers’ championship, 27 points from the lead, after claiming three wins and three second places from his six rally starts so far in 2024.

Evans appeared set to boost his own championship hopes when he was running in second on Saturday morning until a damaged driveshaft caused him to drop outside of the points positions. On the final day he set out to recover as many points as possible from the Super Sunday classification, but unfortunately crashed out at the start of what would be a tough penultimate stage for the team. Again, he and co-driver Scott Martin were thankfully unharmed.

Rising Finnish talents Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen finished a fine fourth on their Rally1 debut on home roads: an opportunity granted to them by TGR-WRT following some impressive performances in WRC2 this year with the GR Yaris Rally2 car. After picking up damage early on Friday in slippery conditions, Pajari recovered well to end the day with a maiden WRC stage win and was third-quickest across Saturday behind Rovanperä and Ogier.

Takamoto Katsuta was another caught out by the tricky conditions of Friday morning, damage stopping him on the road section back to mid-day service. After restarting on Saturday, he and co-driver Aaron Johnston showed strong pace on Sunday, winning each of the last two stages – including the rally-ending Power Stage – and finishing joint top of the Super Sunday classification.

Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala finished second in WRC2 and sixth overall driving a GR Yaris Rally2 entered by TGR-WRT on his home event – he and co-driver Juho Hänninen once again delighting the local fans while also gathering valuable feedback from the new-for-2024 Rally2 car. There were four GR Yaris Rally2 cars in the top six in WRC2, with Mikko Heikkilä of Step-Five Motorsport fourth, Georg Linnamäe of RedGrey fifth and Roope Korhonen of Rautio Motorsport sixth.

Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“Six years ago at Rally Finland, there was a big Yaris signboard in the city with the message ‘Welcome to my home roads’. I remember being very happy about the message that welcomed the Yaris homecoming. At that time, there were just three Yaris cars: Esapekka, Ott, and Jari-Matti’s. In Rally Finland six years later, there were a total of 14 GR Yaris cars that came back home. There were five Rally1 cars, and one of them was Sami Pajari, a young local Finnish driver making his Rally1 debut. The other nine cars were the Rally2, which has been developed in Finland with the hope of expanding the base of rallying. Two of them were driven by young Japanese drivers in our WRC Challenge Program, and one of them was Jari-Matti, the Team Principal of TGR-WRT. And the remaining six cars were driven by private customers who chose GR Yaris to compete in Finland. As the base of cars expands from Rally1 to Rally2, the base of drivers also expands to include young drivers and gentlemen drivers… I want to express my deep gratitude to all the colleagues who have made it possible to realise the scene that I had envisioned only in just a few years.

And as for the competition side of Rally Finland this year: Seb, Vincent, congratulations for the victory! Throughout this season, whenever they have participated in a rally, they have always come back with a win or a second-place finish. The team has truly relied on their consistency and I really appreciate it. For Kalle and Jonne, despite achieving so many victories, there was one thing they hadn’t yet been able to accomplish. It was to win in front of their home fans. I believe both of them approached Rally Finland with a strong determination of “this year, for sure.” It was truly heartbreaking for them to retire after leading until the final day. Sami and Enni finished in fourth place in their first rally in the top category. Considering the difficulties many drivers faced on the roads of Finland, it is an impressive result.

Jari-Matti once again participated as a driver this year. Last year, he competed in Rally1, and he drove Rally2 this year. Actually, it’s an important part of the job for the Team Principal at TGR-WRT to personally feel and understand the cars that the drivers are using. Jari-Matti and Juho looked really happy in the photos I saw on social media. It’s impressive that they came back with a second-place finish while really enjoying themselves.

Among the drivers of the GR Yaris in Rally1 and Rally2, only Jari-Matti and Sami have experience of driving both in the WRC. I haven’t had the chance to meet Sami yet, but when I get the chance, I would like him to tell me various things about Rally1 and 2, along with Jari-Matti.

Lastly, I heard that Kaj, who took on the role of Team Principal this time, was going around the team members from early morning until late at night in place of Jari-Matti. I would like to thank him for taking that responsibility in addition to the role of Sporting Director. Surrounded by numerous GR Yaris cars and even getting on the podium, it must have been a memorable birthday week. Happy birthday, Kaj!

The next rally is in a month. With just a little summer break, it must be tough for everyone in the team. Although we couldn’t reclaim the top spot in the manufacturers’ standings this time, we will continue to make efforts towards winning the championship in the remaining four events.”

Kaj Lindström (Sporting Director)
“It’s been a bittersweet Sunday but it is always a positive thing for our team to win Rally Finland so we have to be happy about that first of all. I’m really happy for Seb and Vincent who did a really great job the whole weekend, so congratulations to them. Still, considering the position we were in at the start of the final day, it could have been a much better result for the championship and it was a huge disappointment to lose two cars on the penultimate stage. Takamoto had a very good run on the Power Stage so well done to him, and it was also a very good debut from Sami – he and Enni did a great job this weekend.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“We had a really good morning with everything under control and still fighting for Sunday points without taking any risks. On pretty much the last corner of the penultimate stage we were driving normally with a steady pace but in the middle of the corner, there was a huge loose stone which I could not avoid and it threw us off the road. It’s quite an unreal feeling, considering there was nothing we could have done to change the situation. It’s quite tough to take but on the other hand, Jonne and I executed a perfect weekend until that point and couldn’t really have done anything differently.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Unfortunately we had an accident right at the beginning of the penultimate stage. I’d managed the corner OK on the first pass, but I had a bit of understeer in the ruts the second time around and ran out of road. We knew it was a tricky corner, but it was more down to the way the car reacted in the rut than the speed. It was a costly mistake on my part and a weekend that went from bad to worse – but this is motorsport and these things happen. There are four rounds to go in the championship and everything is still open, so we’ll continue to give our all until the very end.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“To win in Finland is always nice, even if this is not the way we would like to have taken it. The team provided an amazing car and dominated all weekend. Kalle and Jonne were in a different league than the rest and were very unlucky with this rock on the line. I feel for my team as we deserved a much better result. I lost a win in Sardinia earlier this season through luck and I have now gained one back here. I have been around long enough to experience many outcomes and emotions and I’ve been lucky to be on the right side of that equation most of the time – but not today. I would honestly have preferred to finish second but motorsport is unfair sometimes.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“The car was working very well today after the changes we made yesterday. I had a good feeling on Sunday morning and I was able to push: it’s great to have won the Power Stage and taken maximum points from there, plus scoring good points for Super Sunday by being equal-fastest on the last day. But I’m really sorry to the team for not being able to bring a result home: while the speed was good, the outcome could have been much better. Many people made mistakes this weekend but the rally is a long weekend, not a sprint.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I’m relieved to have finished my first event in a Rally1 car. What an emotional rollercoaster this week has been! It sounds nice to be the highest-placed Finn on Rally Finland and scoring fourth place on my first event – and scoring my first stage win – but there’s still plenty of room to improve. I was expecting a more consistent and relaxed event – I don’t remember a time the weather was so challenging on Rally Finland. It’s not been the perfect weekend for the team but I’m happy to find positives in my own performance. Huge thanks to Toyota and the whole team: it was a dream come true to drive on my home rally with the GR YARIS Rally1.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 39)
“For myself and Juho it’s a really great feeling at the end of the rally. Our target was to finish in the top five of WRC2 and we’ve been in second place since almost the start of the rally and finished on the podium. It’s been a really enjoyable weekend behind the wheel and I can be very satisfied with my own performance, it’s not been bad. At the same time it’s been a hard Sunday for the team: it’s great to win here again, but to have two cars retire on Sunday is not good for the championship. But I know our team never gives up and we will put all our efforts into the coming events.”

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY FINLAND
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h25m41.9s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +40.1s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m14.1s
4 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m54.5s
5 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m15.5s
6 Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hänninen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8m54.5s
7 Lauri Joona/Janni Hussi (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m29.4s
8 Mikko Heikkilä/Kristian Temonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m32.0s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +9m51.2s
10 Georg Linnamäe/James Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +10m07.0s
41 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +51m44.8s
Retired Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID)
Retired Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID)
(Results as of 16:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 9:
1 Thierry Neuville 168 points
2 Sébastien Ogier 141
3 Ott Tänak 137
4 Elfyn Evans 132
5 Adrien Fourmaux 119
6 Kalle Rovanperä 86
7 Takamoto Katsuta 76
8 Esapekka Lappi 33
9 Andreas Mikkelsen 29
10 Dani Sordo 27

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 9:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 395 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 375
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 207