TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has claimed a second successive one-two finish after Kalle Rovanperä stormed to victory ahead of Sébastien Ogier at the FIA World Rally Championship’s first Rally Latvia.
Returning to the high-speed gravel roads where he began his rally career as a teenager, Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen led the rally from the opening stage in Riga on Thursday night. They won 11 stages along the way – recording their 200th career fastest time on Saturday morning – as they marked their 50th start at the highest level of the WRC with their 14th victory.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais made an impressive return to action after being forced to miss the previous round in Poland – which made this Ogier’s first fast European gravel rally for almost three years. He was already the top debutant on Latvian soil when he ended Friday in third place, before taking second away from the local favourite Mārtiņš Sesks (M-Sport Ford) on Saturday.
With its one-two result, TGR-WRT took maximum manufacturers’ points from the overall standings plus second and third in the separate Super Sunday classification – where Ogier was denied top spot by just 0.2 seconds. With the Power Stage results also factored in, the team closes to within one point of the championship lead.
Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin finished fifth overall on an event where road position was a significant factor on the loose gravel stages. Running second on the road on Friday, Evans still did well relative to his championship rivals and, finishing fourth in the Super Sunday classification, has closed to within 13 points of the series leader.
Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston showed good confidence and pace from the start of the rally, holding fourth position at the end of Friday before a small overshoot on Saturday’s SS12 caused damage to the power steering system, leaving them sixth at the finish.
There was also a double podium for the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in the WRC2 category, with Mikko Heikkilä finishing in second place for Step-Five Motorsport and Sami Pajari third for Printsport after an exciting battle between the two Finnish drivers. Pajari, who won WRC2 on the two previous rounds in Sardinia and Poland, will make his Rally1 debut with TGR-WRT on the next event in Finland.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“Kalle, Jonne, congratulations on winning two consecutive events! Seb and Vincent finished in second, achieving a one-two finish. With the lots of points they earned, we were able to close the gap to Hyundai, the leading manufacturer, to just one point.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has been able to return to our home event, Rally Finland, as the championship-leading team every year since 2021. However, we couldn't make it happen this year. I feel very sorry to our Finnish fans. I hope that many local fans will be able to see us reclaim the top position in the next rally in Finland. There's not much time left to prepare, but I'm sure that the team will make it for that.
And I also hope that the team will come to our other home event, Rally Japan, as the leading team! Along with all the Japanese fans, I, Morizo, will also be waiting for the team here in Japan!"
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“This has been a fantastic event for us. After Rally Poland we scored another one-two finish and took some really important and vital points for the championship, closing the gap in the manufacturers’ standings. Kalle did an amazing job leading from the first stage onwards, I think he was even more dominant than expected. It was also great to see how well Seb was driving to take the second place when he’s not been driving these fast rallies for a while. Elfyn started really well on Friday considering his road position, even though I know he would have hoped for more points. The performance of the car this weekend has been superb, our drivers have been fast and it gives us good confidence to go to our home event at Rally Finland next.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It has been a really great weekend for us and for the team. Latvia is a special place for me and my career and almost a home rally in a way so it’s really cool to win the first WRC rally here. A big thank you to the team: I think we were very strong here, maybe more than we expected. Together with Seb finishing second we took some more really important points for the team. Thanks also to Jonne: I think we did a good job the whole weekend. We will enjoy this result now and then look forward to Rally Finland which will be another challenge.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Today was all about trying to get as many extra points as we could. On the whole it was not going too badly for most of the day, but to just fall short by a few tenths of a second in the Power Stage was annoying. At least it’s been a weekend where we gained some points, which is better than nothing. We always want to do better but it’s been a difficult weekend with the road cleaning and we were always a bit on the back foot from there. Now we’ll look forward to Rally Finland which is always an enjoyable event.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I’m very pleased: a one-two was the target we wanted to achieve for the team this weekend. We’ve made a very positive step for the manufacturers’ championship. Unfortunately today these two tenths didn’t go our way, a bit like in Sardinia, but I gave it my all and have no regrets. Kalle was untouchable this weekend, so very well done to him. On my side, I had a lot of fun in the car and I’m pleased with my performance because it’s been almost three years since I’ve competed in this kind of very fast rally and it looks like I still have some good speed.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“This rally was hard until the very end. The stages were very nice to drive and I really enjoyed the feeling in the car. But there were many new and different things to manage and unfortunately I made the mistake in a chicane yesterday which cost us a lot of time. I’m still disappointed about that but I just need to forget about it and move on to the next one. At least the speed and the confidence was there so it’s been good preparation for Rally Finland and I’m looking forward to that.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY LATVIA
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h31m47.6s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +39.2s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m04.5s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m31.5s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m42.7s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m07.0s
7 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m45.4s
8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2m46.4s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +5m23.1s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m37.9s
(Results as of 18:45 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 8:
1 Thierry Neuville 145 points
2 Ott Tänak 137
3 Elfyn Evans 132
4 Sébastien Ogier 117
5 Adrien Fourmaux 101
6 Kalle Rovanperä 86
7 Takamoto Katsuta 65
8 Andreas Mikkelsen 29
9 Dani Sordo 27
10 Esapekka Lappi 23
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 8:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 351 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 350
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 177
What's next?
Rally Finland (August 1-4) is the fastest rally on the calendar, run over smooth gravel roads containing many jumps. It’s also a home rally for TGR-WRT, which has its headquarters close to the service park in Jyväskylä.
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