Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“We had some good things and some not so good things to take away from this local rally near Jyväskylä. For Takumi and Shotaro it was their first high-speed gravel rally in four-wheel drive cars, and they had a really good rally. Even if there was not so much competition, they were able to push and race against each other and that’s the best way to learn, to handle the fight and the pressure without starting to overdrive. It was quite challenging with really fast stages, and they really had to be committed and trust their notes but they handled it well and finished with a good result, so we’re happy with that. On the other hand, Kanta and Rio both had a tough lesson in their second rally with us. Both had quite big accidents and we’re glad they and their co-drivers are all OK. For Kanta, there was a wrong pacenote called before the corner. Co-drivers have to deliver so much information and it’s very rare that there are mistakes, but unfortunately it can happen. After the really good result in his first rally, Rio also discovered how hard rallying can be if you make a small mistake. In both cases we’ll analyse what happened as there are always things to learn. Tomiya meanwhile had another good rally and another victory and Jarkko was very happy again with how he is doing.”

Takumi Matsushita
“It’s been a good day for us. We could push quite a lot and have a good feeling without any scary moments. We lost a bit of time at the start of SS2, when there was some confusion with the start lights, but I pushed a lot to compensate for that and at the end I’m very satisfied to finish first overall. The last stage was Myhinpää, a very nice classic stage from Rally Finland, in the reverse direction which I really enjoyed. This was very good learning for the next events on fast roads and I will keep pushing for Rally Estonia and Rally Finland.”

Shotaro Goto
“This was a really fast rally with many flat-out corners, which made me nervous before the event because I felt I was not so good on fast gravel roads before. But today I was generally able to build up my confidence stage by stage. The last stage, Myhinpää, was the trickiest stage in this rally and I was able to push with confidence and the stage time was really good. The next rallies will be fast gravel events in Estonia and Finland so this was good preparation.”

Rio Ogata
“In the first stage there was heavy rain at the start and I was too careful, especially in the first half, but then I could feel some grip in the second half of SS1 and started to have a good rhythm. SS2 on the other hand was completely dry, but unfortunately we crashed after 2.7 kilometres. I entered a fast left-hand corner on some loose gravel on the outside and I lost the rear of the car, and I couldn’t correct it with the steering and we rolled. I will learn from this to improve my driving for the future.”

Kanta Yanaguida
“This rally started quite well but unfortunately we had a crash on SS3. There was a mistake in the pacenote reading: my co-driver then corrected the note but I didn’t have time to react and we went to the outside of the corner and rolled. It’s very disappointing but we will keep looking forward and working hard for the future. Big thank you to the team for the support.”

Tomiya Maekawa
“We could have a very nice rally here. Even though it was quite a small local rally, the stages were quite challenging but enjoyable. We got not only a good result but also good experience and some ideas on how to improve our pacenoting based on the tricky places in this rally. So this was very good preparation for our next event in the Finnish Rally Championship.”