Метка: Toyota Racing

Hartley concedes WEC title despite Toyota #8 winning at Interlagos

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Reigning World Endurance Championship title winners Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa have all but conceded the crown despite winning Sunday’s Interlagos round.

Read Also:

Hartley believes that even after taking maximum race points in the Sao Paulo 6 Hours and moving from eighth to fifth place in the championship, the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID will be playing what he called a “supporting role” to the sister Le Mans Hypercar over the remainder of the campaign.

“We know that the championship is a long shot and were thinking that way before we came here to Brazil,” said Hartley, who along with Buemi and Hirakawa arrived in Brazil trailing team-mates Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries by 38 points.

“We thought we were going to be playing a back-up role here, but we ended up winning the race, though I’m not sure it changes much.

“The #7 car is in the better position in the championship and I’m pretty sure we are going to be supporting them over the coming races. I think that’s going to be our job over the rest of the season.

“There’s also the manufacturers’ championship to consider, which Toyota really wants to win again, and we’re going to have to play our part there.”

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Hartley pointed out that the championship-leading Porsche crew of Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre “scored good points” in Brazil, which will make any comeback by the drivers of the #8 Toyota that much more difficult.

The New Zealander conceded that the #7 entry was the quicker of the two Toyotas in Brazil and would have won but for a fuel pressure problem early in the third hour that resulted in the loss of three minutes when a control unit was changed in the sidepod.

“We got the victory but #7 was flying today — they went a different direction on set-up,” explained Hartley. “They were quicker than us and had much less tyre deg.”

Conway, who was returning to the Toyota line-up after missing last month’s Le Mans 24 Hours through injury, built up a clear lead over Hartley in the early laps and was back in the lead after taking a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement before the second round of pitstops. 

Hartley explained that the grip from his Michelin tyres “fell off the cliff” in the closing laps of his opening double stint.

The #8 car moved into the lead when the sister Toyota encountered its problem as Conway handed over de Vries and went on to control the remainder of the race before taking victory by more than a minute.

De Vries and Kobayashi were able to fight back up to fourth, which allowed them to retain third place in the championship behind the Porsche Penske Motorsport crew and Le Mans-winning Ferrari drivers Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.

Conway is seventh in the points courtesy of his absence from Le Mans after breaking his collarbone and two ribs in a cycling accident.

Read Also:



Source link

Toyota dominates to defeat Porsche

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Toyota dominated at Interlagos on the way to a second World Endurance Championship victory of the season on Sunday.

The Japanese manufacturer’s #8 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar shared by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi took the victory laurels in the Sao Paolo 6 Hours by a clear margin ahead of the two Penske-run factory Porsche 963 LMDhs.

Buemi crossed the line 1m08s ahead of the #6 Porsche driven by Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre, which in turn was 7s up on the sister car of Frederic Makowiecki, Michael Christensen and Matt Campbell.

Toyota led the way for the majority of the race and would almost certainly have finished 1-2 but for a rare technical problem for the sister #7 entry of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi.

Theirs was the faster of the two GR010s in the fifth round of the 2024 WEC and led the way through the opening double stint until an issue with a fuel pressure sensor when Conway handed over to de Vries early in the third hour cost the car three minutes.

Conway had built up a lead of 18s over Hartley when he had to take a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement, but was quickly back ahead of his team-mate and able to rebuild an advantage before he stopped.

De Vries and then Kobayashi were able to haul the car up the order, the Japanese bringing the car first into the top six and then up to fourth in the final hour.

The Japanese driver passed Alessandro Pier Guidi’s Ferrari 499P LMH with five minutes to go shortly after Jenson Button had stopped out of fourth place for a late drive-through following a tyre pressure infringement on the #38 Jota customer Porsche.

The Toyota was able to make the medium compound Michelin work on the aggressive Interlagos surface and in higher temperatures encountered during practice and qualifying.

Its two GR010s ran exclusively on the softer of the two tyres available in Sao Paulo, whereas Porsche and Ferrari also used the hard during the race.

Start action

Start action

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Both Porsche Penske Motorsport entries ran into minor delays over the course of the six hours.

The #6 entry sustained a puncture early on after Vanthoor had a coming together with Will Stevens in the #12 Jota Porsche, which resulted in the Briton receiving a 30s penalty.

The championship-leading PPM car looked set to finish behind the team’s other entry before #5 lost 20s to a change of the tail section after contact with an LMGT3 class entry when Christensen handed over to Campbell.

Kobayashi crossed the line 7s behind Campbell and just half that margin ahead of the Ferrari Pier Guidi co-drove with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.

The Italian car was delayed by a drive-through for a Full Course Yellow infringement early in the race, but the manufacturer never looked like repeating its Le Mans 24 Hours victory of last month.

The second of the AF Corse-run factory 499Ps, the Le Mans-winning entry shared by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina, rounded out the top six on a day that it couldn’t match the sister car.

The best of the Jota cars, in which Button was joined by Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen, ended up seventh.

Peugeot took eighth place with the #93 9X8 2024 shared by Nico Muller, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne.

The revised version of the French manufacturer’s LMH produced its best showing so far, Muller making progress up the order on the hard tyre when temperatures were approaching their hottest.

BMW took ninth with the WRT-run M Hybrid V8 LMDh shared by Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann, while Alpine snuck into the points with the #36 A424 LMDh shared by Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Cadillac failed to follow up on Alex Lynn’s fourth place on the grid, the V-Series.R he shared with Earl Bamber ending up 13th after encountering brake issues.

#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler

#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Porsche took a fourth LMGT3 class victory in fives races and the Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3-R shared by Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm and Alex Malykhin a second of the season.

They dominated proceedings on the way to a one-lap victory over the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driven by Alex Riberas, Daniel Mancinelli and Ian James.

Malykhin trailed the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 driven by class pole winner Sarah Bovy until midway through their opening double stint when he was able to move past a car that was clearly struggling on its tyres and then move into a clear lead.

The Iron Lynx-run Lambo was firmly established in second place in the middle stages of the race with Rahel Frey at the wheel when it lost coolant.

After 16 minutes in its box, the car briefly returned to the track before the Italian team retired the Huracan.

Riberas closed in on Bachler late in the penultimate hour, getting to within 4s before their final short pitstops.

The gap went out to 16s after the Aston took four Goodyear tyres and the Porsche only two before coming back down to the 4s after a late FCY.

Riberas was deemed, however, to have violated the FCY regulations and was handed a drive-through.

Third place went to the best of the two United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos in which Marino Sato was joined by Nicolas Pino and Josh Caygill.

They ended up 48s in arrears of the Aston on the way to taking a first podium for the Anglo-American team on its return to the GT ranks in the WEC this year.

Race result:



Source link

Toyota dominates second practice with 1-2

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The two Toyotas led the way in second free practice for Sunday’s Interlagos World Endurance Championship round as the top four cars were separated by five-hundredths of a second.

Sebastien Buemi sealed the top spot with a 1m26.727s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar early in the extended session on Friday afternoon. 

Kamui Kobayashi then vaulted the sister #7 entry up from seventh in the closing minutes with a 1m26.760s that left him just three hundredths behind.

The two Ferrari 499P LMHs took third and fourth, a late run from Alessandro Pier Guidi yielding a 1m25.770s to knock team-mate Antonio Fuoco down to fourth.

Fuoco had earlier jumped to second with a 1m25.776s before the improvements from Kobayashi and Pier Guidi bumped him down to fourth, though still only 0.049s off the pace. 

Cadillac driver Alex Lynn moved up to second in the American manufacturer’s solo V-Series.R LMDh at the beginning of a flurry of quick times in the final hour of a session that had been extended as a result of the early curtailment of opening free practice. 

The British driver’s 1m25.869s was only good enough for fifth in the final classification as the second Toyota and the two Ferraris improved. 

The two Jota customer entries led the way for Porsche in sixth and seventh positions, Callum Ilott edging out Jenson Button as the two Hertz-liveried 963 LMDhs traded times. 

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hypercar of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hypercar of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Ilott’s 1m25.931s gave him a margin of just four hundredths over his team-mate, who ended up on 1m25.979s.

The customer Ferrari run by AF Corse took eighth in Robert Shwartzman’s hands, while Julien Andlauer was ninth in Proton Competition’s privateer Porsche. 

Robin Frijns rounded out the top 10 in the best of the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s with a 1m26.693s, which was still within a second of the pace. 

Top Peugeot driver was Jean-Eric Vergne in 11th place aboard the #93 9X8 2024 LMH with a time just over a second down on Buemi’s best for Toyota. 

Charles Milesi took 12th for Alpine, while the championship-leading Porsche Penske Motorsport entry was 12th in Laurens Vanthoor’s hands.

The Auto Sport Promotion LMGT3 class Lexus squad bounced back from the accident that resulted in the early stoppage of FP1. 

Jose Maria Lopez led the way in class with a 1m35.725s aboard the #87 Lexus RC F GT3. 

The Argentinian driver, back in the ASP Lexus after returning to Toyota’s Hypercar line-up at Le Mans, ended up three tenths up on late improver Franck Perera in the best of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s.

Perera posted a 1m36.060s to edge out Alessio Rovera’s AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

Daniel Juncadella, who had topped the class leaderboard for much of the session, ended up fourth in the best of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs.

The second ASP Lexus that was crashed at Turn 4 by Arnold Robin in FP1 has been withdrawn from the meeting. Frenchman Robin was given a clean bill of health after a check-over at a local hospital after the big accident.

Third free practice for Sunday’s Sao Paolo 6 Hours begins at 10:30 local time, with qualifying kicking off at 14:30.

WEC Interlagos second practice result



Source link

«Still a few unknowns» for Conway on post-injury Toyota WEC return in Brazil

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Toyota driver Mike Conway has conceded that there are “still a few unknowns” ahead of his return to the cockpit at this weekend’s Interlagos World Endurance Championship round.

The Briton stressed that only after his first laps in opening free practice on Friday morning ahead of the Sao Paolo 6 Hours will he have the final validation of his fitness as he recovers from the injuries that ruled him out of last month’s Le Mans 24 Hours.

“I’ve ticked a lot of the boxes and the next one is sitting in the car — obviously it is still an unknown,” he said.

“It feels alright doing the driver changes, even when they drop the car. I feel good and I’m hopeful.”

Conway broke his right collarbone, which required surgery, and fractured two ribs in a cycling accident three days ahead of the Le Mans Test Day in June.

His recovery schedule precluded him getting some laps in a racing car ahead of his return to the line-up of the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.

“I didn’t really want to: with the scheduled we had — and it was a tight schedule to get back in — I didn’t want to set myself back by getting in something too early,” he explained.

Conway has been in the Toyota simulator before and after the confirmation that he would be in the car for Interlagos last Friday.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Mike Conway

Photo by: Toyota

He revealed that he still felt pain “here and there” and is still “a bit still a bit stiff in the mornings”.

He also explained that the anticlockwise Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace will put more stress on his injured shoulder than a conventional clockwise circuit.

“The right arm has got more work to do around here,” he explained.

“There are a lot of left-hand corners; it would have been nice to go to a track with more right-handers.”

Should Conway encounter problems that prevent him from racing this weekend, the #7 Toyota would go into Sunday’s six-hour event with a two-driver crew.

Ritomo Miyata, Toyota’s official reserve driver, is not present in Brazil.

Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury explained that it was never the plan to bring Miyata into the line-up at one of the six-hour races in the event of the withdrawal of one of its regular crew.

Miyata was overlooked for the Le Mans double-points WEC round after Conway’s accident.

Toyota instead recalled Jose Maria Lopez, who has been replaced in the Japanese manufacturer’s Hypercar class squad by de Vries for this season.

The Argentinian driver moved over from Toyota sister marque Lexus’s WEC LMGT3 class representative, Auto Sport Promotion, with which he is contesting the full series in one of its pair of RC F GT3s.

Free practice for Sunday’s Sao Paolo 6 Hours, round five of the 2024 WEC, begins at 10:45 local time on Friday.



Source link

Sebastien Ogier declared fit for WRC return in Latvia

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Sebastien Ogier will make a return to the World Rally Championship in Latvia after being declared fit to compete following a reconnaissance crash that ruled him out of Poland.

The eight-time world champion and co-driver Vincent Landais escaped serious injury after being involved in road traffic accident while preparing pacenotes ahead of Rally Poland last month.

Ogier spent a night in hospital following the head-on collision with a road car, before being discharged wearing a neck brace. The Frenchman was forced to withdraw from event with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 entry being taken over by two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera, who went on to win the rally.

Ogier has since undergone further medical checks after returning home and on Thursday was back behind the wheel of a Sebastien Ogier edition GR Yaris road car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

It was previous unclear if the Frenchman would return for next week’s round in Latvia which was recently added to the 40-year-old’s partial WRC campaign.

However, Toyota has now confirmed that Ogier and co-driver Landais are fit to compete.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“It was quite unfortunate what happened during our preparations in Poland,” Ogier said.

“Now after some rest, and some good help from my medical team, I could recover pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to being back in a rally car in Latvia. The challenge of a new rally is generally something I like and that’s one of the reasons we added this event to our programme.

“The target for us will be to find the feeling for the very high-speed roads quickly after missing Poland, but I’m always excited for a new challenge and let’s see what we can do.”

Toyota will field a four-car line-up for the WRC’s first visit to Latvia which will include full-time drivers Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta, and Rovanpera.

A total of 10 Rally1 cars are set to take part with Hyundai represented by championship leader Thierry Neuville, Ott Tanak and Esapekka Lappi. M-Sport will enter three Ford Pumas for Adrien Fourmaux, Gregoire Munster and home hero Martins Sesks.

Read Also:



Source link

Toyota expands to five WRC Rally1 entries for Finland, Latvala to drive Rally2

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Toyota will field five Rally1 cars when the World Rally Championship heads to Finland next month, while team principal Jari-Matti Latvala will drive a Rally2 car.

Rally Finland has today released an 80-car entry list for the famous gravel rally, which hosts the ninth round of the WRC season from 1-4 August.

The entry list features 10 Rally1 cars with half of those Toyota GR Yaris Rally1s as part of an expanded line-up from the Japanese brand, whose rally team is based in the rally’s host city Jyvaskyla.

Regulars Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta will be joined by part-time drivers Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier, while it has already been announced that Sami Pajari will graduate from Rally2 to make his Rally1 debut at the round.

Confirmation of Ogier’s appearance comes with the team yet to announce if the Frenchman will be fit to compete in Latvia later this month after being ruled out of last weekend’s Rally Poland following a recce crash.

Hyundai’s three-car Rally1 line-up will see Finn Esapekka Lappi join the full-time drivers – championship leader Thierry Neuville and title contender Ott Tanak. M-Sport will field its two full-time entries driven by Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster.

Finland will also see 18-time WRC rally winner Latvala return to competition behind the wheel of a Rally2 version of the GR Yaris which the Finn played a role in helping develop before the car’s launch this year.

Jari-Matti Latvala, Team principal Toyota Gazoo Racing, Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Jari-Matti Latvala, Team principal Toyota Gazoo Racing, Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Latvala will join a Rally2 entry that includes frontrunners Oliver Solberg, Teemu Suninen, Emil Lindholm, Gus Greensmith and Pierre-Louis Loubet.

This will be the second consecutive season Latvala has participated in Rally Finland after finishing fifth in a one-off outing driving a Rally1 GR Yaris last year.

«It’s brilliant to have 10 Rally1 cars on our entry, three of them driven by Finns, which is a good story for us,” said Kai Tarkiainen, Rally Finland clerk of the course.

“Especially Sami Pajari, who in 2019 was the Flying Finn Future Star, drove with a Fiesta Rally4 here and actually ended up in a bush. But he showed his speed and after that, he’s taken huge steps. To go from your first WRC event to a Rally1 car in five years is a Cinderella story.

«To see such a commitment from Toyota, bringing five Rally1 cars to the event, is special, and we’ll have three world champions out on the stages in Kalle Rovanpera, Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tanak who’ll need to push hard to beat defending winner Elfyn Evans.

«Witnessing Latvala jump into a Rally2 car and fight all these hungry youngsters will be a treat for all the spectators, and it’ll be fascinating to see where he slots in against Oliver Solberg and all the others up at the front who’ll be curious how they measure up to Latvala.”

Read Also:



Source link

Conway returns to Toyota’s WEC roster for Brazil round after injury

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Toyota driver Mike Conway will return to the cockpit at the Interlagos World Endurance Championship round after recovering from injuries that ruled him out of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The Briton will retake his place in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries for the Sao Paolo 6 Hours in Brazil, round five of the 2024 WEC, on 14 July after missing Le Mans last month.

Conway was forced to sit out the blue riband round of the WEC after sustaining a broken collarbone and two broken ribs in a cycling accident.

The incident happened just three days before the cars were due on track at Le Mans in the pre-event Test Day on the Sunday ahead of race week.

Toyota chose to recall Jose Maria Lopez to its Hypercar class line-up rather than bringing official test and reserve driver Ritomo Miyata into the race line-up.

Lopez, Kobayashi and de Vries went on to finish second in the race, finishing 14s behind the winning #50 Ferrari 499P LMH.

Conway said: “It’s great to be back and I can’t wait to be behind the wheel again.

“Watching Le Mans from a distance was tough for me: I went through all the ups and downs with Kamui, Nyck and Jose but it was incredibly frustrating that I could not be part of it.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

“I always knew we were in safe hands with Jose, and he did a great job.

“Now I am just looking forward to competing again, fighting at the front and hopefully helping Kamui, Nyck and the team win the world championship.”

Kobayashi and de Vries sit third in the drivers’ points behind Porsche drivers Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer and the Le Mans-winning Ferrari crew of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.

Lopez will return to the wheel of the LMGT3 class Lexus RC F GT3 run by the Auto Sport Promotion team, alongside Esteban Masson and Takashi Kimura, at Interlagos after Jack Hawksworth stepped in for Le Mans.

The Argentinian driver switched over to Toyota’s sister brand Lexus when he was replaced by de Vries in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Hypercar roster.

Track action begins on the 2.68-mile Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on Friday 12 July with two 90-minute free practice sessions.



Source link

Rovanpera yet to realise enormity of super-sub WRC Poland victory

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Kalle Rovanpera says it will take time to realise the enormity of his latest World Rally Championship victory in Poland as a last-minute replacement with limited preparation.

Toyota’s reigning world champion was drafted in to replace Sebastien Ogier for the gravel rally after the eight-time world champion escaped serious injury in a road traffic crash while preparing pacenotes for the event.

Rovanpera was servicing his jet ski and co-driver Jonne Halttunen was getting a tattoo in Estonia when they received a call from Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala to jump on a flight to Poland on Tuesday night.

The pair headed to Poland without the usual preparation of a pre-event test or studying on-board videos beforehand and had to undergo a rushed recce of the stages. Despite the challenges, Rovanpera claimed victory by 28.3s from Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.

“For sure, it [the win] doesn’t feel so different now because we have been working all of the time and it is just the result of the hard work but later on I will realise [what I have done].

“I’m just quite tired at the moment. I’m just happy to be here at the end it was quite tough.

“I have to say I wasn’t really expecting much and of course, every time you put the helmet on you try to do your best.

“I had a chance you always have a chance, but you have to count on yourself, but I knew it would be difficult for sure. You need to keep going and trying all the time.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Rovanpera admitted at times it was scary going into the stages without his usual more detailed preparation, but pinpointed overcoming tiredness as the toughest aspect of the week.

The 23-year-old revealed that he fell asleep on his laptop during the week after staying up late working on his pacenotes.   

“I think the biggest challenge was that I just had no sleep and already coming into the weekend I was quite tired,” he added.

“I didn’t sleep well the weekend before and on Monday, I was watching NHL finals with my friend and the next morning I was waking up for the recce.

“On the driving side, it was the first pass [of stages that were tricky] trying to push and leave a margin because there were a few places where we were surprised, which was expected. 

“It was not so easy to push hard as you need to choose where to take the risk.

“I have to say it was quite clever [the way we drove]. We didn’t make any mistakes, and everything went our way.”

Rovanpera will now head straight from Poland to Imola tonight for a Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux test at 8am on Monday morning.

Read Also:



Source link

‘Supersub’ Rovanpera’s WRC champions drive surpassed Toyota’s expectations

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Kalle Rovanpera surpassed Toyota’s expectations by delivering a world rally champion’s performance to lead Rally Poland after limited event preparation as a last-minute substitute for Sebastien Ogier.

Rovanpera was servicing his jet ski on Tuesday when he received the call to stand in for Ogier after the eight-time world champion was ruled out of the event after being involved in road traffic accident during recce.

The 23-year-old headed to Poland without undergoing a pre-event test or conducting the usual process of analysing onboard stage videos leaving the Finn firmly on the back foot.

Rovanpera underwent a rushed recce of the stages that was completed just hours before the rally begun. Rovanpera reeled off six stages wins from seven tests on Saturday to lead the rally by 9.4s over Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen with four stages remaining.    

This performance has arrived despite frustrations by the lack of preparation and tiredness due to long nights analysing videos to hone the rushed pacenotes.

“World champions have something more than the others and they are capable of stretching themselves more,” Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told Motorsport.com when asked to explain Rovanpera’s drive.

“We have seen it with [Sebastien] Loeb and with [Sebastien] Ogier and now with Kalle as I never expected he would be that strong here without the preparation.

“You could see that he was a little bit grumpy at the very beginning and then that is when a world champion can take things and later when he gets the confidence, he is able to attack.

“It is definitely a very, very strong performance. One of his best performances was when he was in difficult conditions in the rain like in Estonia [2023], but this [in Poland] the art of a world champion.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Latvala, an 18-time WRC rally winner, is well aware of the work that goes into prepare for rallies and was in awe by how well his driver has coped without heavily studying videos before the rally.

“You can see this morning he was annoyed as he couldn’t have the stage [mapped out] so well in his head, he added.

“You have the notes but what the difference is these days is when you watch a stage on the video you have that image [in your head] and how much you can use the road and how close to the edge of the road you can go.

“Without that image [from the videos] you can only rely on the notes and you have to take the risk to go to the edge of the road and you don’t know what that is going to be like. So you have to be 100% on the notes plus sometimes a little bit more than what the notes are saying.

“In the rally here, you have to be attacking a bit more and have to drive a little bit over the note and it is very risky and dangerous if you don’t remember how the road is.”

Read Also:



Source link