Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team hope to add to their success on snow and ice when they contest the only pure winter event in the FIA World Rally Championship, Rally Sweden, this week 15-18 February.
It was in Sweden where TGR-WRT scored their first victory – in only their second event – back in 2017 with Jari-Matti Latvala, now Team Principal, behind the wheel. In all, the team have won four times from six starts in Sweden and will target a strong result in round two of the 2024 season after beginning the year with a double podium at Rallye Monte-Carlo last month.
Two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä will commence his 2024 WRC programme on Rally Sweden, where he previously claimed victory in 2022. He lines up alongside Elfyn Evans (above), who took his first win with the team in Sweden in 2020, and Takamoto Katsuta, who has also tasted success on the event in the past.
A fourth GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid will be driven by Lorenzo Bertelli as part of TGR-WRT’s customer programme. Sweden is one of the Italian driver’s favourite rallies; it’s also where he first competed with the team, one year ago.
Following the GR Yaris Rally2’s debut at Rallye Monte-Carlo, seven of the cars will compete in the WRC2 class in Sweden. Sami Pajari (Printsport) is joined on the entry list by Georg Linnamäe (RedGrey Team), Mikko Heikkilä (TGS), Roope Korhonen (Rautio Motorsport), and Jan Solans (Teo Martín Motorsport), together with the TGR WRC Challenge Program duo of Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure.
Since 2022, Rally Sweden has been based in Umeå, the largest city in northern Sweden and a short trip across the Gulf of Bothnia from Finland where TGR-WRT are based. The event’s move north – it now takes place closer to the Arctic Circle – has helped ensure extreme winter conditions and also even faster roads.
This is one the quickest rallies of the season, with drivers ‘leaning’ their cars on snow banks by the sides of the road to carry more speed through corners and using special studded tyres to gain extra grip.
As last year, the rally will begin with a short sprint stage in Umeå on Thursday evening. This will be repeated at the end of Friday following two loops of three stages: the Brattby and Floda tests are identical to last year, but much of Norrby is new.
Saturday has a similar format with a trio of repeated tests beginning with the all-new Vännäs, followed by the familiar Sarsjöliden, while Bygdsiljum includes some of last year’s Botsmark stage.
A double-length version of the Umeå stage rounds out the day and, as in 2023, will also be run as the rally-ending Power Stage on Sunday when it follows two passes of a revised Västervik test.