Rally Turkey: Day 4One-two for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing and a hat-trick for Tänak

Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (Team President)

“Following Finland and Germany, we, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT, have achieved excellent results for the third consecutive rally. I really appreciate the fans who are supporting us from all over the world. Rally Turkey was very tough, beyond our imaginations, for all the components of the car including the chassis, engine and tyres, because of its severe roads with big rocks and high temperatures. To have run through such roads and reached the finish with these great results, I appreciate the drivers, the co-drivers and all the team members. Thank you all and congratulations! During the rally, the Yaris WRCs did not run perfectly all the time. There were minor issues for every car and each crew had to drive carefully. Driving carefully back to the service park, improving the car together with engineers and mechanics during service, and going back to the stages... this is how we reached the podium. When he finished Saturday in second overall, Latvala said that on Sunday he would drive for the team and his team-mate. I am really glad to see the result of such teamwork. And I am proud of not only the winning crew, Tänak and Järveoja, but also all my team-mates who gave their full efforts to make this happen. In this team, Toyota Motor Corporation works to make cars which drivers can drive more easily. Together with our amazing team-mates we will continue making “ever-better” cars in order to share more joy in the future. Thank all the fans in advance for your continuous support of the team.”

Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)

“This has been another absolutely brilliant weekend for us. Thank you to Ott and to Jari-Matti: they concentrated really hard and didn’t make any mistakes. It was a new rally for everybody, with some very technical stages, and we saw that it was easy to make mistakes. It was a big challenge as well for the cars but we managed it well and this is the result. The team has done a fantastic job with the cooling package and everything else, and now our car seems to be very reliable. It is great to now be leading the manufacturers’ championship and we will keep working hard until the end of the season.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7)

“This is a great result for the team. The main thing today was to get the one-two finish and we did it. Everything went according to plan. I tried to be clever and not do anything stupid and I had a consistent run. We are trying hard to win the manufacturers’ championship so these points were very valuable, and the remainder of the season now looks very exciting. For me, it is very nice to be on the podium again. Things have started to look better since Finland. Now let’s keep it going this way.”

Ott Tänak (Driver car 8)

“This rally was so difficult. From the beginning, we knew that it will not be the fastest driver that will win this rally but that it would be the smartest. We were the most consistent and we managed to do the whole rally without any issues or having to stop on any of the stages. Obviously it has been a great team effort and they have been able to build a very strong car. The championship is now wide open so let’s keep pushing.”

What’s next?

Round 11 of the 2018 season is Rally GB on October 4-7. In dry conditions these stages can be driven at fairly high speeds, but in the Welsh autumn the pace is usually tempered by mud, which can make the surfaces treacherously slippery. Fog and even ice can add to the challenge, particularly early in the morning or late in the evening.