Surpassing Markku Alen’s WRC Portugal record “means a lot”
Eight-time world champion Ogier added yet another record to his glittering resume by scoring a record sixth career Rally Portugal after beating Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by 7.9s. The triumph marked Ogier’s 60th WRC win and his second from three rallies during a part-time campaign for Toyota this year. Rally Portugal, one of the founding members […]
Ogier holds rally lead, Evans hit by overheating drama
Thick fog provided a curveball for the field, but it failed to derail Ogier as the eight-time world champion led Tanak by 10.1s after the morning’s three stages. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville held onto third [+1m12.1s], while M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+1m44.0s] leapfrogged Hyundai’s Dani Sordo [+2m44.2s] into fourth. Toyota’s Evans completed the three stages, but an […]
Rovanpera explains WRC Portugal exit from the lead
The Toyota driver started the Saturday morning loop setting a blistering pace that resulted in a stage 10 win to open up a 6.7s lead over team-mate and fellow 2024 part-time driver Sebastien Ogier. However, Rovanpera’s rally quickly came undone on stage 11 [Montim, 8.69km] when the Finn lost the rear of his GR Yaris […]
Driving to smartphone WRC pacenotes “almost as good as normal”
Evans was forced to drive to pacenotes read from a smartphone by his co-driver Scott Martin for three stages after the latter left his pacenote book at time control at the end of stage six. The unusual incident was triggered by a bottleneck at the end of stage 6. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe […]
Toyota not “expecting too many changes” to WRC technical rules for 2025
The WRC is currently gripped by discussions over the technical rules for next year after teams strongly opposed the FIA’s proposal to make changes to Rally1 and Rally2 cars in a bid to boost entry numbers at events. The FIA intends to remove hybrid power from Rally1 cars and further reduce the performance of the […]
Toyota expects Ferrari to remain quickest in Spa WEC despite BoP hit
David Floury, technical director of Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe, believes that its Italian rival will maintain at least some of the the advantage it showed last time out at Imola before tactical errors when it rained allowed the Japanese manufacturer to come through to win. Floury intimated that that the BoP changes for the Spa […]
2025 WRC Rally1 prototype “not so exciting” after first test
Evans was offered a brief taste of the future when he piloted a modified Toyota GR Yaris during his pre-event Croatia Rally test last month. Fan vision captured from the test showcased the GR Yaris running with revised aerodynamics centred around the rear wing, which appeared to conform to the FIA’s proposed 2025 regulations. It […]
Toyota shuffles its WRC manufacturer points scorers for Portugal
Reigning constructor world champions Toyota will field both its part-time drivers in the same event for the first time this season in Portugal next week as it looks to widen its seven-point gap over Hyundai in the championship. As a result, Toyota has nominated current world champion Rovanpera and eight-time world champion Ogier to score […]
Toyota weighs up third Hypercar for WEC
The Japanese manufacturer has revealed that it could take a leaf out of arch-rival Ferrari’s book and run a third car on a satellite basis in the future. But Toyota WEC race director Rob Leupen has revealed that it is already too late to put such a plan into place for next season and that […]