TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team will look to defend its unbeaten run through another hot and rough gravel challenge when the legendary Acropolis Rally in Greece hosts round seven of the 2025 season on June 26-29.
After achieving back-to-back gravel wins in Portugal and Sardinia with Sébastien Ogier at the wheel, the GR YARIS Rally1 now faces another tough test in Greece. The Acropolis runs earlier in the year this season, having been held in September since it returned to the FIA World Rally Championship in 2021, and the new date in the middle of summer brings the possibility of harsher conditions for cars, tyres and drivers.
As well as leading the manufacturers’ championship by 69 points, TGR-WRT continues to occupy the top three places in the drivers’ standings; Elfyn Evans leads Ogier by 19 points and Kalle Rovanperä by 20. Alongside this trio nominated to compete for manufacturers’ points, Takamoto Katsuta once more drives a fourth silver GR YARIS Rally1 while Sami Pajari pilots a fifth car under the TGR-WRT2 banner.
The GR Yaris Rally2 is again well represented with 10 cars entered in Greece, where it won the WRC2 class last year in the hands of Pajari. Oliver Solberg, like Ogier, will arrive off the back of wins in both Portugal and Sardinia and is registered to score WRC2 points in Greece with the Printsport team. He is joined by Jan Solans and Alejandro Cachón of Teo Martín Motorsport, Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Rallylab Technology), Marco and Bruno Bulacia (Delta Rally), TGR WRC Challenge Program duo Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure, RedGrey’s Georg Linnamäe and privateer Fabio Schwarz.
This year the rally returns to the Greek capital Athens for a start ceremony and opening super special in the heart of the city on Thursday evening. Friday’s action begins to the west with three stages on familiar roads around Loutraki, which then hosts a remote service before three further tests are tackled on the route back north to the service park in Lamia. This includes the Stiri stage, last driven in 1997. Saturday is the rally’s longest day, made up of a loop of three stages south of Lamia to be run twice, either side of mid-day service. Two stages north-west of Lamia will run twice either side of service on Sunday; the brand-new Smokovo and well-known Tarzan, the second pass of which serves as the rally-ending Power Stage.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“Sardinia was a great rally for the team and it’s giving us a good feeling for the Acropolis, which can be a similarly demanding event. We learned a lot in Sardinia as we try to improve the car and the drivability, and we had an important test in Greece last week with all the drivers as we look to make another step in the knowledge that our competition is also working hard. Greece can suit our drivers well, as the roads there are a bit wider and faster than in Sardinia, and opening the road is usually not quite as tough. Still, there will be some cleaning to do for Elfyn, Seb and Kalle, and they will need a very good Friday to keep themselves in the fight for the rest of the rally. Taka and Sami also showed promising performance in Sardinia and that’s giving them more confidence for Greece.”