Rally Argentina: Day 2TOYOTA GAZOO Racing battles through the mud in Argentina

Quotes:
Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)

“This morning was quite positive for us but the afternoon loop was more difficult. Ott was showing some great speed, but it seems that he had an impact somewhere that did some damage to the driveshaft. Kris and Jari-Matti also had a few issues after the promise they showed earlier on. The stages today have been very tough for the cars, but tomorrow I think they should be more friendly. It’s still close at the front and we can see that our speed is good.”

Ott Tänak (Driver car 8)

“It has been a tough day with conditions that were very hard for the cars. With the engineers we were able to make some changes in service, and that improved things for the afternoon so that I could have a bit more confidence. I was quite enjoying it and some good stage times were coming. We had the issue with the driveshaft on the last stage, but we could make it back to service to get it fixed tonight. I believe we should have a good car for tomorrow’s stages, and we’ll push hard. There’s a long way to go so everything is still to play for.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10)

“This morning was quite good, it was consistent and we were up there, not far from the leaders. This afternoon was much tougher. It started well but I was too fast in one corner in the ruts and pushed a tyre off the rim, so we had to finish the stage with a flat tyre. That made me a bit cautious on the next stage, and then on the final stage of the loop I had a spin and lost some more time there. We still have two days left and a lot can happen, especially in these conditions, so we will stay positive.”

Kris Meeke (Driver car 5)

“It has been a challenging day for everyone in these conditions. I really enjoyed it this morning. It wasn’t about ultimate pace, it was a case of reading the road and trying to work out where it would be really slippery. For most of the stage it would be fine with good grip, and then there were some really deep patches of mud that you had to try and anticipate before you hit them. The afternoon was tough. We had a couple of issues with the car that slowed us a little bit, but I simply didn’t have the pace anyway. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and we can still challenge for the podium.”

What's next?

On Saturday, the focus is just to the north-east of Villa Carlos Paz for two loops of three stages in Punilla Valley. Friday lunchtime’s super special stage is run again prior to mid-day service.

Martin Järveoja (Co-driver car 8):

“This is the longest stage of the rally, although it’s about seven kilometres shorter than it was last year. It begins only a kilometre after the end of the previous stage, so we don’t have much time to reset between them. We did the recce for tomorrow’s stages in the rain, but we don’t know exactly what condition they will be in now that the weather has dried up a bit.”