TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team finished with both crews inside the top 10 for the second time this year, on what was widely acknowledged as the toughest event of the season so far: Rally Argentina. Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished fifth, with Juho Hänninen and Kaj Lindström were two places behind them in seventh, after four challenging days of action.
Both crews encountered their fair share of issues on the event, but these were valuable opportunities for the team to learn in order to improve the Yaris WRC further for the future. The final day of the rally contained three stages, including the legendary El Condor and Giulio Cesare tests, characterised by lunar landscapes and high altitudes. Both drivers got through the stages with no problems, as a result of which TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT retains third in the manufacturers’ championship, while Latvala is still second in the drivers’ standings.
Quotes:
Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)
“Rally Argentina has provided some hard lessons for us in some extremely challenging conditions, but we were able to learn a lot from them, so we welcome the challenges like the ones we have seen over the last few days. Both the drivers have done a fantastic job, even though they have been a bit unlucky with some of the problems they faced. Without those, they could have been even higher up the classification. However, in the end we have to be happy with the result that we take away from here, and we are also happy with the information and knowledge that we have gained about our car in these unique soft gravel and rough conditions. We know that the Yaris WRC is basically very strong!”
Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10)
“The final day of the rally was consistent. I tried not to be a superhero and just finish the rally safely! Our car is very tough, we can say that for sure, and we certainly improved the performance compared to the last gravel round in Mexico. We got one point for the Power Stage and took fifth overall, but the most important thing was that we kept our consistent run of points that we had from Monte-Carlo, and so the championship stays open. It’s incredible, but in all of my career I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to the front after just five rallies. Now I’m looking forward to the next test and the next rally, so that we can keep on making the car better.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL RESULT, RALLY ARGENTINA:
1 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 3h38m10.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +0.7s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +29.9s
4 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1:24.7s
5 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1m48.1s
6 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +7m42.7s
7 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC), +11:16.9s
8 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +14:44.1s
9 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +15m11.3s
10 Pontus Tidemand/Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia R5) +17m32.1s
(Results as of 18:00 on Sunday (local time), for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2017 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR DRIVERS AFTER ROUND FIVE:
1 Sebastien Ogier 102
2 Jari-Matti Latvala 86
3 Thierry Neuville 84
4 Ott Tanak 66
5 Dani Sordo 51
6 Elfyn Evans 42
7 Craig Breen 33
8 Hayden Paddon 33
9 Kris Meeke 27
10 Juho Hänninen 15
2017 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MANUFACTURERS AFTER ROUND FIVE:
1 M-Sport World Rally Team 162
2 Hyundai Motorsport 140
3 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT 99
4 Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 71
What’s next?
The next round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) is Rally Portugal from May 18-21. This is one of the most emblematic events on the WRC, run in the north of the country over some very famous stages. As it is another gravel rally, the team will be able to put the lessons learned in Argentina immediately into practice, and the development process will be accelerated further by the first addition of a test car on the event for Esapekka Lappi.
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