Based on the island of Gran Canaria in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of northwest Africa, the rally is characterised by smooth, twisting roads that are constantly climbing or descending the mountainous terrain, and often lined by barriers on one side and rock on the other, leaving little margin for error.

The Program’s second generation of drivers, Hikaru Kogure and Yuki Yamamoto, took on the challenge driving their GR Yaris Rally2 cars in the WRC2 class – which had a large field of over 30 cars including many driven by local experts and others with previous experience of the event.

Despite their own lack of experience, Yamamoto and Kogure quickly settled into a solid pace on Friday’s opening leg, each posting multiple top 10 stage times in their class and finishing the day ninth and 11th respectively. On Saturday, Yamamoto continued to build his pace, culminating in the fourth fastest time in the day’s final mountain test and eighth overall in the class. Kogure was also on to complete the day in the top 10 before a mechanical issue meant he had to stop prior to the last stage. He and co-driver Topi Luhtinen were able to return to action to complete the final day 15th in WRC2.

Yamamoto and his co-driver James Fulton continued their good pace on the last day, although their rally would come to a slightly early end when they ran wide and hit a barrier in the penultimate stage.
Shotaro Goto and Takumi Matsushita, the Program’s third generation drivers, were making just their second starts in the WRC – driving Renault Clio Rally3 cars – and competing in only their second asphalt rallies since joining the Program at the start of last year.

Gaining experience from all three days of rallying was therefore the main goal, but both drivers were also able to build their confidence and their pace nicely relative to the more experienced drivers who were leading the WRC3 category. This culminated in several second and third fastest times in the class, including on the rally-ending Power Stage and with fourth and fifth positions overall – Matsushita and his co-driver Pekka Kelander finishing just 1.5s ahead of Goto and his co-driver Jussi Lindberg.

Quotes:
Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“It was exciting and interesting to come to this rally which was new for all our drivers, with new tyres to learn about as well. It’s been a while since we’ve had a rally on such clean asphalt roads, and we saw good performances from everyone. Yuki had a really positive and solid drive until the unfortunate mistake on the final day. He made a good step forward here and his times were getting better during the weekend. Hikaru started well too and was there with Yuki in the beginning. He struggled a bit more with his braking technique and needs to keep working on this to improve for the future. Takumi and Shotaro were both excited to get into a rally like this and both showed really good performance. Compared to the fast French drivers who have a lot more experience on asphalt, they really improved through the weekend and were fighting with each other the whole time, which is a great way to learn about handling pressure and pushing on without mistakes.”

Hikaru Kogure:
“I was excited to drive this rally with clean and flowing stages like a racing circuit, and I had a good feeling from Friday morning. I wasn’t so satisfied with the speed so I tried to change my driving to find some more confidence and it was better in the afternoon. Still on Saturday I was struggling with some understeer from my driving, and in the afternoon I had some technical issues and eventually had to stop. There was still some trouble on Sunday morning, but I was able to adjust my mindset and just tried to learn something from the stages for the future.”

Yuki Yamamoto:
“It has been a really positive weekend. I was looking forward to this rally and enjoyed driving the stages. I think we managed it well from the start and it was nice to see that the times were improving during the rally even though we were not pushing too much. It was going well until the penultimate stage on Sunday when there was a bit of misunderstanding in the pacenotes between us. I lost where I was and it was too late to get the car turned in and we hit the barrier. It was a bit of a pity because we were close to a good result, but it doesn’t take away my confidence and I’m still proud of what we have done this weekend. We really learned a lot.”

Shotaro Goto:
“This was a really nice rally. It was a weekend of learning as this was only my second asphalt rally, so it felt like I was starting from zero. I really had to learn how to drive on these roads: where to brake, where to aim and where to look. On the first day I had no idea why I was so much slower than the leaders but I’m really happy with how my pace improved. The top drivers in our class had so much experience on this surface, so considering that I think I had really good speed.”

Takumi Matsushita:
“It’s been a great weekend. I was able to improve quite a lot throughout the rally. On Friday I felt I was struggling a little bit but from Saturday I improved quite a lot, rising up the times and getting closer to the top. Then on Sunday I had a very good feeling with the balance of the car – I could feel the rear rotating nicely – and the times were quite good. The stages are really nice, fast and flowing, but sometimes a very fast section was followed by a very twisty section, so I had to really think about that and adjust my driving – I would say that was the most challenging thing.”