TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team hits some of the fastest roads in the FIA World Rally Championship as Rally Estonia (July 17-20) hosts the first of two high-speed gravel rounds in quick succession.
After a trio of hot and rough gravel rallies in Portugal, Sardinia and Greece, the forests of northern Europe now offer a significant change of pace with Estonia to be followed just two weeks later by Rally Finland – the fastest round on the calendar and a home rally for TGR-WRT.
Halfway through the 14-round season, the team has a 65-point lead in the manufacturers’ championship while Elfyn Evans remains on top of a close contest for the drivers’ title despite facing the disadvantage of sweeping the loose gravel roads on the last three rallies.
He will aim to be back on the podium on terrain he enjoys as a two-time winner in Finland, as will Finland’s own Kalle Rovanperä – the winner of the last three WRC rounds to be staged in Estonia. Takamoto Katsuta too relishes the return to faster roads for the first time since he finished second to Evans in Sweden in February, as does TGR-WRT2 driver Sami Pajari, twice a winner in Estonia in the Junior WRC.
While Estonia is not part of Sébastien Ogier’s partial schedule, TGR-WRT still fields a fast and exciting five-car line-up as it hands a debut in its GR YARIS Rally1 to Oliver Solberg. Swedish driver Solberg, son of 2003 World Champion Petter, is currently leading the WRC2 support series where he has taken three wins so far this season driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car. His outing in Estonia – made possible by a change of entered car and change of competitor that have been approved by the FIA – forms part of TGR’s commitment to providing a path for young talent to reach rallying’s top level.
With Solberg’s step up, the GR Yaris Rally2 contingent on the Estonia entry list is led by Roope Korhonen, who’s joined at Rautio Motorsport by fellow Finnish driver Tuukka Kauppinen. Estonia’s Georg Linnamäe won the event outright last year as a round of the FIA European Rally Championship and is joined under the RedGrey awning by Joosep Ralf Nõgene, who makes his WRC2 debut at home. Others competing in the GR Yaris Rally2 include Marco Bulacia (Delta Rally) and Fabio Schwarz (Armin Schwarz Driving Experience).
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto also continues his season driving a GR Yaris Rally2, while it has been agreed that Hikaru Kogure will step back from his participation. The Program’s third-generation drivers Takumi Matsushita and Shotaro Goto make their fourth starts of the year in the WRC3 category driving Renault Clio Rally3 machinery.
Returning to the WRC calendar after a year away, Rally Estonia is known for wide and flowing roads featuring plenty of jumps and crests, but also features many narrower and more technical sections; here the soft and sandy surface can become heavily rutted by the second pass of each stage.
The event remains based in the country’s second largest city, Tartu – around two hours south-east of the capital, Tallinn. The historic Town Hall Square once more hosts the ceremonial start on Thursday evening before an opening super special stage adjacent to the service park at the Estonian National Museum.
On Friday morning, a pair of stages north of Tartu are run twice before mid-day service. In the afternoon the action moves south for two passes of the Kambja stage plus a street stage in Elva. Saturday’s format is similar, with two stages run twice in the morning and another two repeated in the afternoon, before a return to the Tartu super special in the evening. Three stages form Sunday’s route with Kääriku run a second time to serve as the rally-ending Power Stage.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“After three very rough and demanding gravel rallies, our team is really looking forward to these next events on fast roads in Estonia and Finland, which tend to suit our drivers and our car well. Still, the competition has been close recently and we know that we will need to be at our best if we want to win. These will be the first fast gravel rallies driven with this year’s tyres, so there has been some important work going on in testing since Greece to optimise the whole package for these conditions. We are also excited to give Oliver Solberg this opportunity after some strong results with the GR Yaris Rally2 car so far this season. It’s a great chance for him to experience the performance of the Rally1 car, and for us to see how he adapts to the step up.”