TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team will begin a trio of demanding gravel events in southern Europe at Rally de Portugal on May 15-18 hoping to continue its unbeaten start to the season.
The team has so far won four rounds held in four very different conditions, culminating in a dominant performance on the smooth asphalt roads of Rally Islas Canarias where it achieved a 1-2-3-4 finish. Having claimed maximum manufacturers’ points on three of the four events, the team leads the championship by 51 points.
Now it is preparing to enter a run of seven consecutive rallies on gravel. The first three, in Portugal, Sardinia and Greece, feature similar characteristics to one another with rough and rocky roads combined with the potential for high temperatures, testing cars, tyres and crews. Of the three rallies, Portugal has relatively faster albeit still technical roads and a softer, sandier surface, which can become rocky and rutted for the second pass.
For these upcoming rallies, the GR YARIS Rally1 takes on a cool new look for summer with the usual black swapped for a lighter silver colour scheme. As well as providing something fresh for fans to enjoy, the new colour offers an additional benefit to keep the car and crews cooler between stages by reflecting more of the heat from the sun.
TGR-WRT can count on a strong five-car line-up for this event, with three previous winners in Portugal nominated to compete for manufacturers’ points. Elfyn Evans won the rally in 2021 and leads the drivers’ standings by 43 points over team-mate Kalle Rovanperä, who tasted victory in both 2022 and 2023. Sébastien Ogier claimed a record sixth Portugal win in 2024. Takamoto Katsuta has also performed well in Portugal previously while TGR-WRT2 driver Sami Pajari has won there in Junior WRC.
A record 16 GR Yaris Rally2 cars are entered as part of a huge field of over 50 Rally2 cars. Oliver Solberg (Printsport), Jan Solans (Teo Martín Motorsport), Roope Korhonen (Rautio Motorsport), Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Rallylab Technology), Georg Linnamäe (RedGrey), Mathieu Franceschi (AMD Motorsport), Alejandro Cachón (Toyota Spain/Teo Martín Motorsport) and privateer Fabio Schwarz all continue their WRC2 campaigns, as do the TGR WRC Challenge Program duo Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure. Bolivian brothers Marco and Bruno Bulacia begin WRC2 seasons with a pair of cars from Delta Rally, with Saudi driver Rakan Al-Rashed (Printsport) and Spain’s Alexander Villanueva (MAPO Motorsport) also entering the category.
Kris Meeke, former WRC driver for TGR, competes with TGR Caetano Portugal as part of the Portuguese championship – where he has won all three rallies so far this season – alongside a sister car fielded by Sports&You for three-time national champion Ricardo Teodósio.
While the rally is based in the north of the country around the second-largest city of Porto, with the service park located in nearby Matosinhos, the event once more begins from the historic central city of Coimbra on Thursday evening before an opening super special at Figueira da Foz. A marathon Friday follows, consisting of four stages around Arganil driven twice with two remote service halts, and another two new stages at Sever do Vouga near Aveiro on the way back north to Porto. Three classic stages north-east of Porto are repeated either side of mid-day service on Saturday, which ends with a super special at the Lousada rallycross circuit. Another trio of tests are run twice without service on Sunday, concluding with the famous Fafe.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“The result at Rally Islas Canarias was amazing for our team and gives a good feeling entering a run of three demanding gravel events. It’s nice to take them on with our new summer livery, which has generated some extra excitement for the fans and should also help keep the cars a bit cooler and our crews more comfortable. The stages in Portugal are enjoyable to drive but tyre management can be key if it’s hot and dry, especially on Friday’s harder roads. With Elfyn we’ll also face the challenge of opening the road, but this comes from how well he’s been driving and his confidence is high. Kalle came back strong in the Canaries and we’re sure he can soon find that feeling on gravel too. Seb’s passion is to win and he is usually in the fight in Portugal, where Taka has also shown he can perform well. Sami was even better than expected in the Canaries and we hope he can build his confidence again and set good times once more. This is also a busy time in my historic campaign with my Toyota Celica ST185, which I’m looking forward to driving in Antibes on some old Rallye Monte-Carlo roads. But I’ll also be following the stage times in Portugal closely, in the knowledge that Juha Kankkunen is doing an excellent job looking after the team and drivers.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“After a good start to the season we’re now entering a sequence of gravel events where, as championship leader, it can be challenging running first on the road on the Friday if it’s dry. My recent testing on gravel has been in the wet, so preparation has not been ideal, but the feeling was good in Kenya and even if the rallies we’re heading into are quite different to that, I’m confident we can start them in a stronger place than where we were last year. Portugal has some great stages that are fun to drive, so we’ll be looking to enjoy them and even if road cleaning is a factor, we also want to aim for a strong run through Sunday to keep scoring as many points as we can.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It felt good to win again in the Canaries after quite a while. Now we go back to gravel, where I’m still working to feel as comfortable as I do on asphalt. On gravel there’s always less grip and you’re sliding a lot more, and with the different weight balance of the car and new tyres this year, I’m still looking for the happy place. Together with the team we were working hard on it during our test last week and hopefully we can find a good, consistent pace to keep scoring the points on these next rallies. The style of the stages in Portugal is really nice, I always enjoy driving them and hopefully we can be fast there again this year.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“Rally Islas Canarias was a nice event for the whole team and I was pretty happy with my own result. Now we go back onto gravel after a long time away for me, since Chile last October. A lot has changed in that time with the car and the tyres, and I had some challenging weather conditions in my test, but I’m lucky to have a great team around me and my team-mates and let’s hope we can carry on the great start to the season. I’ve always loved Portugal; it’s a rally with a unique atmosphere and a lot of fans. It was nice to finally get the sixth win there last year and it would be amazing if we could repeat that result again.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“The last rally was very good for me and for the team, and it’s always nice to come away with a good result and a good feeling. Now we go to Portugal, where there’s a lot of fans and a lot of passion and I can feel that amazing atmosphere every year. I enjoy the stages a lot and they suit me pretty well. We’re still learning about the gravel tyres and so the test was important to find a good setup for the rally, and we’ve tried to prepare well. I’ve been close to a podium in Portugal in the last few years and my main target is going to be to set good, consistent times in every stage and enjoy.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“In the Canaries my rally was going quite well until the slightest mistake took us out. It was a pity but it’s all part of the learning and now we look forward to the next event in Portugal. Some of the stages there can be really enjoyable and others can be very rough, and with long days and high temperatures it can be demanding for the car and the crew. It’s again quite different to what’s come before but we will just continue with our approach; I hope we can have a clean event in Portugal and then try to improve from one rally to the next through Sardinia and Greece.”
