Rally Sweden: DAY2Early promise for Toyota hampered by tough conditions

Quotes:
Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)

“I don’t think I have ever seen a first full day to a rally quite like this. You can just see from the stage times here who did well in Monte Carlo and who didn’t. The road cleaning is having an even bigger effect now that everybody is using wider snow tyres than in the past. It must be very frustrating for the drivers who are leading the championship at the moment, including Ott and Jari-Matti. Esapekka made a little mistake which is unfortunate, as he could have been in a good position tomorrow fighting for the lead, but he has shown good speed and confidence in these conditions. With the running order being reversed tomorrow it will give an even bigger advantage to those who started further down today, but there are still two more days to go and we will see what happens.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7)

“It has been a really demanding day. Firstly, we had the fresh snow this morning and then on the second pass through the stages we had to follow the narrower lines of the historic cars and it was extremely slippery outside of those lines. I could not really push any more than I did, but that’s the way it is. I have been quite happy with the car and tomorrow will hopefully be a more positive situation for us.”

Ott Tänak (Driver car 8)

“Today has been really tough. There were some extremely difficult conditions, with a lot of snow. It looks nice from the outside but on the road it’s quite a struggle and it is difficult to find any grip. It would be nice if we could be last on the road tomorrow but unfortunately the road position will be the same as today, so it will be a similarly hard job. I think in the end we need to survive and to collect as many points as possible. Let’s do the best we can.”

Esapekka Lappi (Driver car 9)

“The conditions were quite tricky. The second loop was even tougher than the first: it was very easy to make a mistake because the ruts were very deep and there was a lot of loose snow. I kissed a snow bank with the front of the car and got too much snow in the air filter, so I was lacking power in the last five kilometres and we lost half a minute. We are still in the game with two days to go though, and I think that there were also many positives today. I was a bit surprised with how good my speed was, so I just need to take that feeling with me for tomorrow and enjoy it.”

What's next?

Tomorrow’s schedule features eight stages, beginning in the morning with a loop of three tests. Among these is the Vargasen stage which features Colin’s Crest, a famous jump named in honour of 1995 World Rally Champion Colin McRae with an award given for the furthest leap. The three stages are repeated after mid-day service, before a second visit to the super special stage in Karlstad and the Torsby Sprint test next to the service park.