This was the young Japanese trio’s second starts in the WRC after making their debuts on Rally Sweden in February. Having been based in Finland – home to the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team – since they were selected to join the Challenge Program last year, the three drivers had the chance to take what they’ve learned from testing and competing on local roads and put it into practice across a four-day event with 320.56 competitive kilometres scheduled.

Rally Finland is famed for its fast gravel stages with frequent jumps and crests, but was dominated this year by wet weather that made for changeable grip levels as well as rutted roads – especially challenging for those in two-wheel drive cars towards the rear of the international field like Yamamoto, Kogure and Otake.

But on a weekend where their compatriot and first-generation Challenge Program star Takamoto Katsuta finished on the overall podium for TGR-WRT with multiple stage wins, the next-generation drivers also demonstrated strong performance. Driving their usual Renault Clio Rally4 cars in a class of eight entries, the trio were between them quickest in all but two of the 21 stages driven, and fought a close battle for the class win for much of the event.

Yamamoto led Kogure by 19.5 seconds at the end of Friday and slightly increased that advantage over Saturday morning, before receiving a 40-second penalty after his car was late leaving mid-day service. The pair remained close until the penultimate stage of the day, Rapsula 2, where both would unfortunately encounter trouble within moments of each other. Firstly, Yamamoto hit a rock that caused a loss of power steering, and he slid off the muddy road a few hundred metres later, damaging the radiator. Less than a minute later, Kogure lost the rear of his car and entered a high-speed roll: he and co-driver Topi Luhtinen were taken to hospital for checks but were thankfully released without needing treatment.

Nao Otake lost around two minutes on Friday morning after he overshot a junction in SS5 and picked up a puncture, and he and co-driver Marko Salminen later retired to service after detecting an issue in SS6. They restarted on Saturday and were quickest in five stages, plus another two on Sunday. Yamamoto and his co-driver Miika Teiskonen could also restart on Sunday, ending the weekend with eight stage wins.

Quotes:
Hikaru Kogure:“Already after recce I felt I had quite good confidence about my pacenotes and it was the same once the rally started. I had good confidence from the first stages and I could have good speed. The conditions were very difficult as the roads were very wet and muddy. So it was very challenging but still really enjoyable. Unfortunately in a high-speed section in SS17, I missed the clean line and the rear snapped. I overcorrected and couldn’t come back from it and we rolled. It was my mistake, but thankfully both Topi and I were fine. I don’t think I could have won against Yuki on speed, but compared to previous events I could be a lot closer to the pace and could feel good improvement.”

Nao Otake:“This was quite a tricky weekend because of all the rain, and for us there were so many rocks that we needed to avoid. It was not easy, but I was enjoying the experience a lot of competing in Rally Finland. On Friday morning the feeling was quite OK but in the Halttula stage I missed my braking point for one junction and we went into the ditch and got a puncture, which was a pity. On Saturday and Sunday the feeling was pretty nice. I changed my mindset and everything was going well, so I’m happy about that.”

Yuki Yamamoto:“It has been a good experience to compete in Rally Finland, although I was not always happy with my performance. The conditions were really difficult, so sometimes I was too careful or making a mistake. Still, we also had some good pace and I was learning a lot of things. What happened on Saturday was a big pity. It was my mistake: I hit a rock on the inside and lost the power steering, and then damaged the radiator. I didn’t expect to see these kind of conditions in Finland: the stages were really rutted and quite rough, but we had some experience of this from Poland and Latvia and this was helping.”

Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):“We are happy with the speed that the boys were able to show this weekend. Early on, they were running first, second, and third and pretty close to each other, which was promising. Unfortunately, they all made some small mistakes. Like in other rallies this year when it’s been fast and flowing, Yuki could show really good pace. Hikaru was also really fast and in a very close fight with Yuki before his crash, while Nao could set a good pace when he restarted. So, like a few times this year, they were all showing really good speed and just missing the results at the end. We’ve been pushing them to work on their pacenotes to be able to be quick on fast roads, and that’s something they are definitely able to do. So it’s going in the right direction and we just need to do some fine-tuning to try and avoid the mistakes in future.”