Toyota will subject 5 Rally1 vehicles when the World Rally Championship heads to Finland subsequent month, whereas workforce principal Jari-Matti Latvala will drive a Rally2 automobile.
Rally Finland has at present launched an 80-car entry record for the well-known gravel rally which hosts the ninth spherical of the WRC season from 1-4 August.
The entry record options 10 Rally1 vehicles with half of these Toyota GR Yaris Rally1s as a part of an expanded line-up from the Japanese model, whose rally workforce relies within the rally’s host metropolis Jyvaskyla.
Regulars Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta shall be joined by part-time drivers Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier, whereas it has already been introduced that Sami Pajari will graduate from Rally2 to make his Rally1 debut on the spherical.
Affirmation of Ogier’s look comes with the workforce but to announce if the Frenchman shall be match to compete in Latvia later this month after being dominated out of final weekend’s Rally Poland following a recce crash.
Hyundai’s three-car Rally1 line-up will see Finn Esapekka Lappi be part of full-time drivers, championship chief Thierry Neuville and title contender Ott Tanak. M-Sport will subject its two full-time entries pushed by Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster.
Finland will even see 18-time WRC rally winner Latvala return to competitors behind the wheel of a Rally2 model of the GR Yaris which the Finn performed a task in serving to develop earlier than the automobile’s launch this yr.
Jari-Matti Latvala, Group principal Toyota Gazoo Racing, Elfyn Evans, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Latvala will be part of a Rally2 entry that features entrance runners Oliver Solberg, Teemu Suninen, Emil Lindholm, Gus Greensmith and Pierre-Louis Loubet.
This would be the second consecutive season Latvala has participated in Rally Finland after ending fifth in a one-off outing driving a Rally1 GR Yaris final yr.
“It is sensible to have 10 Rally1 vehicles on our entry, three of them pushed by Finns which is an effective story for us,” mentioned Kai Tarkiainen, Rally Finland clerk of the course.
“Particularly Sami Pajari, who in 2019 was the Flying Finn Future Star, drove with a Fiesta Rally4 right here and truly ended up in a bush. However he confirmed his velocity and after that, he is taken big steps. To go out of your first WRC occasion to a Rally1 automobile in 5 years is a Cinderella story.
“To see such a dedication from Toyota, bringing 5 Rally1 vehicles to the occasion, is particular, and we’ll have three world champions out on the phases in Kalle Rovanpera, Sébastien Ogier and Ott Tanak who’ll have to push laborious to beat defending winner Elfyn Evans.
“Witnessing Latvala leap right into a Rally2 automobile and combat all these hungry kids shall be a deal with for all of the spectators, and it will be fascinating to see the place he slots in in opposition to Oliver Solberg and all of the others up on the entrance who’ll be curious how they measure as much as Latvala.”