TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s all-star squad set to fly on home roads

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team aims to continue its recent winning run when it competes on home roads at Rally Finland next week (August 1-4) with an expanded all-star driver line-up.

The high-speed gravel stages of central Finland are the fastest and most spectacular in the FIA World Rally Championship and also home ground for TGR-WRT, which is headquartered not far from the service park in Jyväskylä and has five wins from the last six editions of the event.

As well as defending that proud record, the team will look to carry on its recent positive momentum in the championship, having closed to within one point of the lead in the manufacturers’ standings with consecutive one-two finishes on rapid gravel rallies in Poland and Latvia. To maximise its chances and celebrate its home rally in style, the team has assembled its strongest and largest ever line-up of GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID crews, with five cars entered in the top class.

The driver line-up includes both of the team’s multiple world champions, Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier, and their cars will carry unique liveries inspired by the Special Edition GR Yaris models they helped to launch earlier this year. Jyväskylä’s own double world champions Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen have the opportunity to claim a first Rally Finland victory to complete a high-speed summer hat-trick following their Poland and Latvia wins. Ogier meanwhile returns to Finnish roads for the first time since winning his eighth WRC title in 2021, fresh from a strong second-place finish with co-driver Vincent Landais in Latvia.

Championship contenders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin are the most successful of TGR-WRT’s crews on Rally Finland after claiming victory in both 2021 and 2023, making them one of only three foreign crews to have won the event more than once. Last year they were joined on the podium by Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston, on what Katsuta considers a second home event having moved to Jyväskylä from Japan to pursue his rally career with the TGR WRC Challenge Program.

Rising Finnish stars Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen will be making their Rally1 debut on their home roads after impressing in the WRC2 class this year with the GR Yaris Rally2 car. Their car will also sport a special colour scheme, with a predominantly white livery that highlights TGR-WRT’s commitment to supporting young rally talent.

In another special draw for Finnish rally fans, Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala will drive in his home event for the second successive year together with Juho Hänninen as his co-driver – this time in a GR Yaris Rally2.

A total of nine GR Yaris Rally2 entries also include Jan Solans, class winner in Portugal with Teo Martín Motorsport; Roope Korhonen, leader of the Finnish championship for Rautio Motorsport; Georg Linnamäe, overall winner of the recent Rally Estonia with RedGrey; and Mikko Heikkilä, who finished second in class in Latvia for Step-Five Motorsport. Also entered are the second-generation TGR WRC Challenge Program duo of Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure, RedGrey’s Gregor Jeets and Finnish WRC2 debutant Juhana Raitanen with TGS.

As is tradition, the rally starts in Jyväskylä itself on Thursday evening with the mixed-surface Harju super special stage, before the action moves into the forests on Friday: a loop of four stages to the north-east – including classic tests Laukaa, Myhinpää and Ruuhimäki and brand-new Saarikas – is run twice before another run of Harju in the evening. On Saturday, there’s a return to the legendary Ouninpohja, run twice together with Västilä and Päijälä to form the rally’s longest day. Another iconic test, Laajavuori, makes a comeback on Sunday when it serves as the rally-ending Power Stage.

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s very exciting to enter our team’s home event at Rally Finland with five Rally1 cars. It’s a big effort, so thanks to all the people in the team who are helping to make it happen. All of our drivers are really hungry to do well: Kalle will want to get that home win, Elfyn always loves the event, Taka has also been doing well there, and even though Seb hasn’t started Rally Finland for a while, I know he would really like to win it again. It’s also going to be very interesting to have Sami in our Rally1 car for the first time and to see how he adapts to the step up from Rally2. After Poland and Latvia, where we managed to close the gap in the championship, the confidence is high but there is always a bit more pressure at our home event and we have to remember to be humble, because if you don’t respect the Finnish roads you can pay the penalty very quickly. I also want to say a big thank you to our Chairman, Morizo-san, for letting me drive the GR Yaris Rally2. This is an event I always want to drive, and at the same time together with Juho it gives us a good opportunity to experience the Rally2 in competition and then share that with our customers.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Every year, Rally Finland is quite a special occasion. Of course, it’s our home rally and one of the nicest events to do with lots of fans and family around. It’s always exciting and the stages are really nice but quite demanding also. Having legendary roads like Ouninpohja on the schedule this year will be amazing. Our approach and our target will be like on every rally we’ve done this year: try to do the best job we can to fight for the win and bring good points for the team. I haven’t managed to get the very best result on Rally Finland but I don’t want to place any extra stress on achieving that. I just want to treat it like any other rally and try to do my best.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Rally Finland is always a highlight on the calendar for me, and it’s going to be an important week for the team and for the championship. We’ve been strong there in the past and should have a reasonable base to work from, and with the testing we’re doing this week, we should be in a pretty good place to start the rally. The road cleaning effect is normally not as significant as we found in Latvia, so it’s usually possible to fight at the front, but we will have to wait and see how the weather conditions are in the days leading up to Friday. Overall, I’m looking forward to it like always: the roads are amazing to drive and the best approach will be to enjoy it and see what comes.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“Rally Finland is a unique event in the championship that I think every driver loves to drive. It’s also a difficult rally, where the local drivers have always been very strong, but this is the kind of challenge that I like and it has been a rally that I really wanted to do again after a couple of years away. It’s also a home event for the team, of course, and I’m happy to be part of this strong line-up and I’ll try to bring everything I can to achieve the best team result. After a break from driving in really fast rallies, I think I had some good speed and a good weekend in Latvia and I hope to bring that to Finland.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Rally Finland is a rally that I always really look forward to. Having been living in Finland for many years, it is like a second home rally for me along with Rally Japan, and it was a really big thing for me to finish on the podium last year. I hope that I can fight for a similar result this year, but it will not be easy of course with so many strong drivers competing. The speed was there on the last rally in Latvia and I had a really good feeling in the car, and I tried to build on this in my test day on Finnish roads earlier this week. So I’m feeling fully confident for the rally and excited to push hard and enjoy it.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I’ve been really looking forward to Rally Finland for a few weeks now. To make my Rally1 debut with TGR-WRT on my home event is going to be a really exciting moment. I’ve had some good test days with the team to help me get used to the car and prepare for the event, but it’s still going to be a big challenge: the stages in Finland can be really demanding with extremely high speeds and many tricky crests. The most important thing is to gain the experience and finish the rally. Of course, I’d like to show some pace as well, but it’s not so easy to set any target in terms of final result. The best approach is not to think about that, and just to learn and progress step by step.”