Toyota Gazoo Racing suffered a nightmare Sunday in Finland.
No one expected Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais to win the 2024 WRC Secto Rally Finland, least of all Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais.
But win it they did, 11 years after last taking victory on the World Rally Championship’s fastest rally.
Rovanperä won 11 stages of the 18 he completed, Ogier took just one win. The eight-time WRC Champion’s 61st victory puts him into second place in the championship standings, not bad for a part-season driver!
“It’s hard to smile right now. A win in Finland is always nice but that is not the way we like to have it. Very sorry for Kalle and Jonne, amazing pace all weekend. We were unlucky in Sardinia and lost in the last stage but we are luck here. That is motorsport. I have to see if we do a full campaign but it looks like I have no other option. It is not my priority anymore but we will see,” said the rally winner.
Until stage 18 out of 20, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen had a three quarter of a minute lead but in stage 19, in all unraveled as he crashed heavily on the last proper corner of the rally. A massive rock on the racing line lifted the front of the car into the air and fired the Yaris into the trees and a huge roll – Rovanperä was a passenger and there was nothing the double world champion could do.
This came on the same stage that Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin crashed out 200m into the stage, their GR Yaris sliding wide, clipping a tree on the right which ricocheted them into the trees on the inside of the corner, leaving a trail of broken Toyota pieces littering the stage.
Thierry Neuville was into second and from a championship point of view, very much in the pound seat, 27 points ahead of Ogier. Adrien Fourmaux claimed his fourth podium of the year while Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen ended their Rally1 debut in fourth overall, banking their first top-tier stage win to boot.
Super Sunday honours – and the points – went to Esapekka Lappi from Takamoto Katsuta and Ogier while Katsuta won the Wolf Power Stage
Hyundai have opened up a 20 point lead in the Manufacturers’ stnadings, adding further to TGR’s misery.
Just four Rally1 cars made it through the 20 stages, leaving WRC2 winner Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson in fifth overall and a perfect drive. Toyota Gazoo Racing Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Juho Hänninen, enjoying a one-off outing in a GR Yaris Rally2, came home in second place ahead of the Skoda Fabia of Lauri Joona and Janni Hussi.
Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow
