Akio Toyoda (Team Founder)

Dear Team memebers, thank you very much for the great work you’ve done in the snowy Arctic Rally Finland.

Kalle, Jonne, congratulations on the second place, the Power Stage win, and climbing up to the lead of the championship! Elfyn and Scott finished fifth and earned more points for the team, and thanks to that, we kept the top position in the manufacturers’ standings.

Taking the place of the cancelled Rally Sweden, this was an additional home rally for us in Finland and I’m sure the team really wanted to win the event. Therefore, the very first message I received from the team after the rally was an apology for missing out on the victory.

Seb and Julien must have had a tough situation including the day retirement on Saturday, but I heard they kept caring about the others. I feel we are a really good team. I already sent my appreciation to the team, but please let me say that again; “Thank you very much to everybody in the team!”

We cannot say we were able to compete with the best conditions, but the team always took immediate action to resolve difficulties in order of priority. Including another good result for Takamoto in sixth overall, I don’t have anything except feelings of gratitude for the results achieved under such conditions.

In addition to safety always being the first priority, our health is also very important especially this season. I learned that Finland would go into a lockdown in March. So let’s continue paying good attention to our health, and we continue ever-better car making to win the championship.

Now the preparation for the next round in Croatia starts and there will be another home rally for us in five months. I hope everybody in the team will be standing around Yaris WRC with big smiles on 1st of August. And I hope I will be also standing there smiling and being soaked with champagne!

Lastly, I would like to thank our fans for continual and enthusiastic support for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. I wish that all of you stay safe and healthy.