TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team made a strong start to its home event as five of its drivers finished inside the top seven after Thursday night’s opening stage of Rally Finland in Jyväskylä.
“It’s always a special feeling to be starting Rally Finland,” said Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen. “There’s been a great atmosphere already around the city in the last few days and so much support for us. From tomorrow I think we can anticipate a close fight in the forests. All our drivers have the speed to win this rally, but we also expect to be pushed hard by our rivals.”
The 75th edition of Rally Finland began with the traditional Harju super special stage, a 2.58-kilometre mixed-surface test located close to the team’s headquarters where the GR YARIS Rally1 cars are built.
Adrien Fourmaux set the early pace for Hyundai, completing the opening stage in 2m06.7s to lead the rally overnight. Team-mate Thierry Neuville finished 1.1 seconds behind, while Toyota’s Elfyn Evans completed the top three, just 1.2 seconds off the lead.
Evans shared the third-fastest time with team-mate Sébastien Ogier, with Takamoto Katsuta, Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg also placing inside the top seven. Less than three seconds covered the first seven drivers after the opening stage.
Earlier in the day, Katsuta had topped the pre-event shakedown at the famous Ruuhimäki stage after three runs.
Ogier begins this weekend reunited with former co-driver Julien Ingrassia, who answered a late call to replace Vincent Landais. Ingrassia previously partnered Ogier during the Frenchman’s first eight World Rally Championship titles after Landais was unable to travel to Finland for personal reasons.
“As always we’ve had a really warm welcome coming here to Jyväskylä,” Evans said. “This is a brilliant event and we want to make the most of our last opportunity to drive these roads with this generation of car. We’ll fight as hard as we can and see what we can do.”
Ogier said he was pleased to return to Finland alongside Ingrassia.
“It’s nice to have Julien back alongside me for one last time and I’m glad that he accepted this last-minute call,” he said. “We have a great car and let’s try to enjoy it.”
Finnish driver Sami Pajari also praised the atmosphere around the opening stage.
“This first stage of Rally Finland is a really special one to drive with an amazing reception from the fans,” Pajari said. “The main thing is we are through OK and ready for tomorrow. We know that we can fight for the win and we’ll do our best.”
Katsuta, who regards Jyväskylä as a second home, said the support from local fans had given him extra motivation.
“The Finnish fans are supporting me and the team a lot, and that gives me big motivation and energy to try and get a better result than ever before here,” he said.
Oliver Solberg admitted he made a few mistakes during the opening stage but was encouraged by his overall feeling in the car ahead of Friday’s forest stages.
“The atmosphere is amazing being here at Rally Finland for the first time as a TGR-WRT driver,” Solberg said. “We just have to be awake tomorrow morning and be ready to push flat-out.”
Toyota’s WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto also made a positive start, setting the fifth-fastest time in WRC2, one tenth of a second ahead of Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala in a GR Yaris Rally2.
Friday’s action moves into the forests north-east of Jyväskylä, where crews will tackle two loops of four stages before returning to Harju to complete the day’s running, covering 127.72 competitive kilometres.
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