Rally Mexico: Day 3 Ogier scores his first victory in the Toyota Yaris WRC

Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (Team Chairman)

“We finally won Rally Mexico, in which we have faced some difficulties since we came back to the WRC. Congratulations and thank you, Sebastien and Julien!

The first two years in Mexico, we could not fight during the rally due to overheating. But our engineers have put a lot of effort into improve the cooling system and finally we reached the top of the podium. I also thank their fighting spirits for the Kaizen.

I heard the organizer and local people planned well and implement measures to hold this rally under safe conditions. I want to convey my appreciation to them for their work hard in helping the fans to enjoy the event. I also want to share my appreciation to the drivers for trying to entertain the fans as much as possible in such circumstances.

Although the next round, Rally Argentina, is postponed, I really hope the day that fans can watch the Yaris WRC back on the stages comes as soon as possible.”

Kaj Lindström (Sporting Director)

“We are very happy with this result. I’m very pleased first of all that Seb and Julien have taken their first victory with us, and also that the team has taken its first victory in Mexico. We struggled when we first came here in 2017, but we have been learning from our mistakes and now we have three cars in the top five. Elfyn did a great job first on the road to do a clean run, and Kalle has also done incredibly well on one of the most difficult rallies for a rookie. In these circumstances we do have some mixed feelings. It’s a shame to end the rally a day early, but with the situation in the world at the moment, we have to be sure we can get our team members home to their families.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)

“It’s been a good weekend. We had a good feeling straight from the start and we took our chance to take the lead on Friday morning. Today we had a better starting position and we pushed straight away and increased the gap, and then we tried to control it until the end. It’s a strange victory and it’s hard to celebrate in these circumstances. But thank you to the team, they’ve done a fantastic job this weekend. The car has been faultless all weekend. It’s been really reliable and fast, and these are good points for the championship.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)

“It’s not been an easy weekend for us, but I felt like we drove pretty well. This morning I think we maximised everything we could, but with the road positions it didn’t work out. This afternoon we made a few little errors and we picked up some little issues along the way, so we weren’t able to challenge. So I’m a little bit disappointed in one way, but at the same time, fourth place after opening the road on the first day in Mexico is not so bad. All three Yaris WRCs are here at the finish, so it’s a testament to the team and the strength of the car.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)

“I’m quite happy overall. It was not the best weekend, but we had a few unlucky moments, and it was nice to see that when we tried to push, we had a good pace. It’s not so easy to have good speed on the first time here, so I can be happy. Today was mostly sweeping the road, and so we went for a safe pace just to keep our position while also learning about the road cleaning. It’s been a really good beginning to the season for me: It’s nice to have had clean rallies without any big mistakes and some proper pace sometimes.”

What's next?

With Rally Argentina having been postponed due to measures regarding the COVID-19 virus outbreak, the next event on the WRC schedule is the Rally de Portugal on May 21-24.