Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“This was quite a successful home rally for the Program, with all seven drivers reaching the finish and with some good results as well. Jaspar had already shown everyone his speed on his last rally in Sweden, and now in Jyväskylä against Esapekka Lappi – who knows some of the local stages very well – he was able to show consistency in an intense fight and take the win. It was a pretty impressive drive. It was also good to have Yuki here, putting in another very good performance to finish fourth ahead of some strong contenders in the Finnish championship. Hopefully this is a good confidence boost for him ahead of the coming WRC rallies on gravel. Takumi and Shotaro continued to gain experience on these fast and technical stages, which can be tricky if you’re not fully committed. There were some little mistakes here and there, and we’ll keep working with them to improve their performance. Rio and Kanta continued their strong performance and fought for the top places from the start. It’s great that they can compete with each other without overdriving, and it will be nice to see them battle for the championship until the end of the season. Lastly, Hiroya did really well on his debut rally. We’ve seen in testing that, with his drifting background, his car handling is no problem. It just takes time to gain confidence with the pacenotes and this was very valuable experience for Hiroya to see what it’s like when you have to commit and rely on those notes. His speed was pretty good and consistent in a competitive category and he was very happy to get this first rally under his belt.”

Yuki Yamamoto
“It was really nice to be back competing in the Finnish championship again after more than a year away. It had also been a long time since I’d driven on such fast gravel roads, so it was good to get that feeling back before the upcoming WRC rallies. These were really important kilometres for me and I really enjoyed it a lot. In the beginning I was a bit unsure on which crests the car will jump, so there was some recalibration for me to do, but I could gradually get back into the rhythm and set some nice stage times. P4 was not a bad result and we gained a lot of data and knowledge, so it was a really positive event for us.”

Shotaro Goto
“Overall, I feel that this home rally was a positive rally for me. As I said after our last event in Sweden, there has been a bit of a struggle for me to get used to a new driving style. However, in this rally, I was able to find a good step forward. It’s not a very big step, and the times are still quite far from the leaders, but I think it is a very important step for me considering the future, and I will keep working to improve in the next events.”

Takumi Matsushita
“Even though all the stages were actually new to me, and so the roads weren’t familiar at all, it was really nice to compete in this home rally. On Saturday morning I had a spin and was still finding my rhythm, but things kept improving through the afternoon. It was my first time driving a rally in the Rally2 car with so many jumps and crests, so I was still learning to judge where the car would jump and where it wouldn't, but this was good practice before the upcoming events.”

Jaspar Vaher
“I have to be very satisfied with how this rally went. I was definitely not expecting to be fighting for the win here but I think we made a good use of our road position, which definitely helped us, and did quite a good job on some stages. With this we were able to get into the lead and then we just tried to maintain that until the end. The main target was just to gain the knowledge and experience, and with every stage being new, I think we could learn a lot. There’s still room to improve so we need to keep working, but I would like to say a big thank you to the whole team because they’ve done a great job to get me to this point.”

Rio Ogata
“I’m very happy to win a rally in our hometown of Jyväskylä. I expected something similar to the last rally in Imatra, and that it would be a big battle in our class against Henri Altomaa, but after he went out in SS3 I was able to lead ahead of Kanta. I could keep up my pace, and although I had some moments, I was able to increase the gap. I’m satisfied with my driving on some stages, but also think I could have performed a bit better in others, so I will keep working to improve my performance.”

Kanta Yanaguida
“It’s very special to be on the podium in our hometown alongside our team-mates. I struggled to feel the grip on the first stage of Saturday morning, but after making some changes to the car setup in service, I felt much more comfortable and I could drive with confidence. It’s a pity that I lost time early on, but I had a good feeling in the second half of the rally, so overall it’s been positive. Thank you to all the team members for their hard work. I will keep working hard and come back even stronger at the next rally.”

Hiroya Minowa
“I’m really happy to finish my first ever rally with no problems. We did have a spin in SS6, but otherwise it was quite stable and consistent. Everything is quite new for me in rallying, for example, to focus on listening to the pacenotes, or on following the line of the cars ahead, but I’m getting used to it quite well. This was quite a crazy rally for my first event, with some really fast and wide roads, as well as narrower roads where I just had to follow the ruts made by the cars ahead, but it was all good experience. The instructors are teaching me a lot and the team is working so hard to support me, so I want to thank them for this opportunity and I’m excited for the next rally.”