Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team aim to strengthen their lead in the FIA World Rally Championship when they compete on home roads at Rally Finland 3 – 6 August, the fastest event of the season.
The rally will be a homecoming not only for TGR-WRT, who are headquartered in host city Jyväskylä, but also for their reigning world champions (below) Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen, who both hail from the central Finnish city.
This will be the first time the pair have competed in a WRC round on home soil since securing their maiden world titles last October, when Rovanperä became the youngest winner of the drivers’ championship.
The 22-year-old returns home fresh from a dominant victory (below) last week on similarly fast gravel roads in neighbouring Estonia, which increased his championship lead to 55 points with five rounds remaining.
Completing the TGR-WRT manufacturer line-up for the event will be Elfyn Evans, currently second in the championship and winner of Rally Finland with the team in 2021, and Takamoto Katsuta, who has lived in Jyväskylä for several years after moving from Japan with the TGR WRC Challenge Program.
Jari-Matti Latvala will make an exciting return to the driving seat on his home event in a fourth GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid at the invitation of TGR-WRT Chairman, Akio Toyoda, who will take on the duties of Team Principal in Finland on Latvala’s behalf.
The gravel roads in the forests around Jyväskylä are considered to be rallying’s spiritual home, renowned for their smooth and fast nature and their numerous crests and jumps. This year, the hugely popular event will kick-off with a ceremonial start on Wednesday evening prior to Thursday morning’s shakedown.
The traditional mixed-surface Harju stage in Jyväskyla opens the competitive action on Thursday evening, and will be run again at the end of Friday after two passes of four stages to the north-east: classic stages Laukaa and Lankamaa are heavily revised, while the legendary Myhinpää returns for the first time since 2015; Halttula was last visited in 1995.
As usual, Saturday is the longest day of the rally at 100 competitive miles and takes the action further south-west with the opening Västilä stage, last run in 2001. Päijälä, Rapsula and Vekkula complete the repeated loop, taking in some classic Rally Finland roads. Sunday has a new look, the reversed Moksi-Sahloinen paired with a new Power Stage ending at the Himos ski resort, which also hosts the podium ceremony.
Welsh TGR driver Elfyn Evans (above) said, “Rally Finland is certainly a highlight of the season, especially for the local drivers but also for me. I always enjoy the event and I’m looking forward to it. There’s no feeling quite like driving on the Finnish rally roads, and if you can be at one with your car then I think nothing can match that in terms of enjoyment behind the wheel.