Rallye Deutschland: Day 2Toyota Yaris WRC leads the way on twisting German roads

Quotes:
Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)

“It is absolutely brilliant to be in this position, with six fastest stage times out of seven so far. Ott seems to have absolute confidence with the car and is able to make it look very easy, even though it is not. This great performance on asphalt is the product of all the hard work that the whole team has done since the beginning of last season. I think that Jari-Matti and Esapekka also have a good feeling with the car. This can be a difficult rally to find the confidence with all the different conditions, but they are in good positions going into tomorrow. Anything can happen on Panzerplatte: it is pretty rough in places but it is very fast and you have to push flat-out.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7)

“This morning I lacked a little bit of confidence in the conditions: with my road position there was more dirt coming on the road than I was used to here before. In service we made some changes with the front differential and the afternoon was definitely better for me. I was very happy with what we did on the second run over Mittelmosel in particular. It’s going to be a good fight tomorrow. For me, tomorrow’s stages are the best ones on this rally. It’s wider and you can use racing lines more, and that’s what I like. Also, the roads will be cleaner than today and that should suit me better.”

Ott Tänak (Driver car 8)

“I think we have had close to a perfect day today. The driving was clean and the car was working really well. Everything was new for me, driving this car on these very specific stages, but I could adapt quickly, the rhythm was there from the first stage and I was able to push hard all day. This afternoon it was more difficult because it rained during lunchtime and every corner had a different level of grip, but we had a clean run with no mistakes. Tomorrow is a different day with more demanding stages on Baumholder, but the mindset is still the same. There is a long way to go and we just need to keep focused and keep concentrated.”

Esapekka Lappi (Driver car 9)

“I was quite pleased with the morning loop. The conditions were quite nice and the car worked really well. The afternoon was then quite tough. The vineyard roads got really dirty in some corners and I struggled a lot in these places. The car feels fine, it’s just a lack of confidence on my side because I don’t want to make a mistake and I am backing off too much. Still, tomorrow is a long day and we have a good road position, and we are only five seconds away from fourth place.”

What’s next?

On Saturday, the drivers face the notorious Baumholder military training area, where there are frequent surface changes and large ‘Hinkelstein’ kerbs to catch out the unwary. Panzerplatte is the longest stage of the rally at 38.57 kilometres, and paired with a shorter ‘arena’ stage nearby. Two tests in the Saarland countryside complete a loop of four stages run either side of mid-day service at Bostalsee.