Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“First of all, let me start with congratulating Jari-Matti and Juho at Rally Hokkaido as they won the rally this weekend. I am grateful that they showed us their world-level driving on actual competition stages in Japan, not just demonstration runs. His driving fascinated fans and inspired fellow drivers. Jari-Matti and Juho helped Japanese rally get closer to the world-level. I’m truly thankful for them.

Jari-Matti was always smiling behind the wheel. However, he must have had some concerns because his team was fighting in Greece also this weekend. But I was not worried at all. TGR-WRT is a field-oriented team. When I was in Finland last month as an alternative Team Principal, I was able to see the work of team members up close. If something happens, a person who is an expert in the field makes a judgement and the management members support that. TGR-WRT is built to work like that, and because I knew Jari-Matti made that kind of team, I was confident that it would be no problem for him to be in Hokkaido. And as I expected, the team well demonstrated their ability.

Kalle, Jonne, congratulations on your victory after a difficult event in Finland! And Elfyn, Scott, thank you for achieving the one-two finish! Your achievement blew away the anxiousness of the Team Principal. All team members will keep making efforts in each field to be able to smile again in November in Japan. Thank you all for working hard in Greece!”

Kaj Lindström (Sporting Director)
“It feels great to have a one-two in the rally and in the Power Stage. It’s been a very tough week here after the conditions changed dramatically during the recce. The crews had to adapt to the changing road conditions, and the team had to adapt as well to make the car perform in those conditions. We were disappointed here in Greece one year ago and knew that there was some work to do. We already saw some results from this work in Mexico earlier this year, and this result here shows how good a job the team has done. Kalle was the smartest guy during the event: he saw where you can push and where you needed to take care. It was a really great performance from Elfyn as well. He faced some problems but didn’t panic, continued and it paid off at the end.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a nice weekend, for sure. This rally is always so tricky and it was a tough week with all the difficult conditions, starting already in the recce. It was a big challenge, and starting first on the road I was not expecting to finish first, so taking 30 points is amazing. Last year we struggled from start to finish in Greece, and this year even as first car we could at least fight with the others. Big thanks to the team, as the car was super strong. We could fight back quite well on Saturday, still staying out of trouble and trying to take care of the car and the tyres which you always need to do on this type of rally. Then I really went for it on the Power Stage, like we always try to do. Now we need to stay consistent and focus on the next rallies.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a pretty up-and-down weekend. If we rewind to Saturday lunchtime, we were very lucky to stay in the rally after the radiator damage. We lost over a minute, so to come back to second place, we have to be happy considering everything. Dani was keeping the pressure on and it was still really tight going into the final stage, so it was good to secure the place in the end and to take some Power Stage points as well. It’s not been a perfect weekend for us in championship terms, as Kalle’s been very strong, so congratulations to him, but we will continue to give it everything. And it’s an incredible result for the team: a credit to everyone for making a leap forward from where we were here last year.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s not been the rally we wanted on our side but that’s the way it is sometimes. This is the kind of rally where you need to have luck on your side, with the very rough conditions, and unfortunately, we had an accumulation of issues yesterday and had to stop. Today I tried my best in the Power Stage but starting pretty much in the front was not so easy. At the end, the positive is that we had some good performance this weekend. We were not rewarded for it, but at least the team did another great result with a one-two, both in the rally and in the Power Stage, which is really good for both championships.”

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, ACROPOLIS RALLY GREECE
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 3h00m16.7s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m31.7s
3 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m35.9s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +4m28.4s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +6m22.3s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +7m20.9s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m41.0s
8 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m51.3s
9 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +11m07.0s
10 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +11m43.4s
(Results as of 14:20 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
The WRC returns to South America for Rally Chile, which was previously held in 2019. The stages in the forests of the Bio Bío region around the port city of Concepción are technical but largely fast and smooth.