Jari-Matti LATVALA

At the end of an incredibly challenging four days for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, it was an excellent result: second for Jari-Matti Latvala, narrowing the points gap to the championship leader, while Esapekka Lappi was fourth, having claimed a remarkable six fastest stage times (including the Power Stage): more than any other driver this weekend. Juho Hänninen led the rally on Friday and also won a stage, eventually finishing sixth. The final day consisted of just four stages, ending with the Power Stage close to Alghero. Latvala and Lappi maintained the positions that they held the previous night, despite Latvala making two small mistakes. Lappi won the Power Stage on only his second rally in the Yaris WRC, adding to his points total. Hänninen had to cope with a steering problem, which had also affected him the day before, but still equalled the best WRC overall finish of his career. Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car #10) “In the end, we were quite close and so I’m happy about this result but I’m a bit disappointed with myself after two mistakes I made today: on the second stage this morning I stalled the car when I was in second gear in the high ruts, then when the same stage was run again as the Power Stage this afternoon I couldn’t get the car turning around the junction. Anyway, all in all I’m happy for the team: it was a good result and a good performance.” FINAL RESULT, RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA: 1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) 3h25m15.1s 2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +12.3s 3 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m07.7s 4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2m12.9s 5 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m25.3s 6 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +3m38.5s 7 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +6m31.8s 8 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Citroen C3 WRC) +8m07.8s 9 Eric Camilli/Benjamin Veillas (Ford Fiesta R5) +11m15.8s 10 Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +11m21.4s (Results as of 20:00 on Sunday local time, for the latest results please visitwww.wrc.com) 2017 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR DRIVERS AFTER ROUND SEVEN: 1 Sebastien Ogier 141 2 Thierry Neuville 123 3 Ott Tanak 108 4 Jari-Matti Latvala 107 5 Dani Sordo 70 6 Elfyn Evans 53 7 Craig Breen 43 8 Hayden Paddon 33 9 Juho Hänninen 29 10 Kris Meeke 27 11 Esapekka Lappi 20 2017 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MANUFACTURERS AFTER ROUND SEVEN: 1 M-Sport World Rally Team 234 2 Hyundai Motorsport 194 3 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT 143 4 Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team 97 What’s next? The next round of the World Rally Championship is Rally Poland from 29 June to 2 July. Based on Mikolajki, it consists of fast roads made up of sandy gravel, with speeds that are close to those of Rally Finland. Ambient temperatures are again likely to be warm and there will once more be three Yaris WRCs taking the start, for Latvala, Hänninen

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team driver Jari-Matti Latvala is challenging for victory on Rally Italia Sardegna: almost certainly the roughest, and one of the hottest, rallies of the year. Latvala is second, with all three Yaris WRC drivers in the top five: Esapekka Lappi is fourth, having won the final stage of the day, while Juho Hänninen is fifth. Latvala lost time in the dust of a competitor recovering from a puncture in the morning but moved gradually up the leaderboard, despite encountering tyre wear and brake issues in the abrasive stages of the afternoon. Lappi also had brake cooling difficulties in the afternoon while Hänninen had a spin and a power steering failure on the final stage. Nonetheless, all three cars proved to be extremely reliable in the harsh Mediterranean summer climate, fighting for the top positions. Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car #10) “On the final stage the tyres were finished and the brakes were also getting too hot. But apart from that, we’ve done some good work today and improved the car over the course of the rally. The main problem we had was during the first run through Monte Lerno this morning, when we were suddenly caught in the dust behind another competitor, who had a puncture. He didn’t know we were there as radio is not allowed, so we lost about 10 seconds. You can’t afford that in the fight for victory as it is so close, so the team has appealed to the stewards and I hope we get the time back.” END OF DAY 3: 1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) 2h56m37.3s 2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +24.3s 3 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m02.2s 4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2m10.8s 5 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2m42.1s 6 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m26.1s 7 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m56.0s 8 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Citroen C3 WRC) +7m47.6s 9 Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +9m52.9s 10 Eric Camilli/Benjamin Veillas (Ford Fiesta R5) +9m53.8s Press release TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC.

In a very successful day for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, Juho Hänninen led the rally in the morning, while Esapekka Lappi set three fastest stage times: including a Yaris WRC one-two on SS7 this afternoon. Today’s action covered eight stages, with all three drivers finishing the first full day in the provisional points. Jari-Matti Latvala is fourth overnight, despite being handicapped by running third on the road. Having gone fastest on SS3 this morning to lead the rally, Hänninen is sixth overall, after going slightly off on the final stage of the day while running second. Lappi ends the day in eighth, having set his first fastest stage times on only his second rally in the Yaris WRC, despite a couple of small problems. Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car #10) “In the morning, I found the stages quite slippery and there was a lot of dust. Then on the third stage of the day we had an impact on the sump guard and this broke the starter motor, so I had to be careful not to stall the car, as there would be no way to start again. We fixed that at service and then in the afternoon we had no problems apart from one very strange thing: the rally plate on the bonnet came off and it was flapping around in front of me, so that was very distracting. But I’m happy with our performance in the afternoon after we were a bit up and down in the morning: it’s going to be a big fight tomorrow and I feel confident that we’re going to be right in the middle of it.” END OF DAY 2: 1 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 1h31m02.6s 2 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +8.2s 3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +9.5s 4 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +9.8s 5 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +14.7s 6 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +38.0s 7 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +41.0s 8 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1m05.3s 9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Citroen C3 WRC) +1m57.9s 10 Eric Camilli/Benjamin Veillas (Ford Fiesta R5) +4m08.0s (Results as of 21:30 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com) Topics: Tomorrow’s itinerary includes the best-known stage of the rally: Monte Lerno, which contains the famous ‘Micky’s Jump’. Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t actually named after Italy’s two-time World Rally Champion Miki Biasion (although his co-driver, Tiziano Siviero, is a consultant to this event, in charge of designing the route). Instead, the jump was named after a local man, known as Micky, who originally built it on the stage. What’s next? Tomorrow only has six stages but it’s the longest day of the rally in terms of kilometres: 625.42 kilometres in total, including 143.16 kilometres of stages. It’s a particularly early start for the crews, who go into first service at 05:00 before heading off for two loops of three stages, separated by service at

Another gruelling gravel event lies in store for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team on round seven of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship: Rally Italia Sardegna. The team continues to develop its Yaris WRC challenger during its debut season and for the second event in a row there will be three cars entered, driven by Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho Hänninen and Esapekka Lappi, who scored points on his top-level WRC debut in Portugal. Lappi’s car will be a test and development car, designed to help accelerate the evolution of the Yaris WRC during this learning season. Rally Italia Sardegna features fast and narrow stages coated with fine and sandy gravel, which is swept away by each passing car to leave rockier and rutted roads. Exposed rocks, as well as trees at the side of the road, can catch out the unwary. Temperatures can often be high, increasing the stress on the cars and the tyres. The rally is based in Alghero on the west coast of Sardinia, but after a super special stage on Thursday evening, crews will stay in Olbia on the east side overnight to contest the classic Terranova and Monte Olia tests as part of four stages run twice on Friday. Saturday is the longest day at 143.16 kilometres across two loops of three stages. There are four stages on Sunday, with Sassari-Argentiera acting as the rally-ending Power Stage. Latvala, who currently sits third in the drivers’ standings, is a former winner in Sardinia, taking victory in 2009 along with four other podium finishes over the year. Hänninen has also contested the event four times in the past but not recently, while Lappi has previous experience from his WRC2 campaign. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “After Portugal, we now have another very tough rally, in Sardinia. Although our cars will not be so different to how they were in Portugal, we learned a few things there that I hope will be useful in Italy. Sardinia will be hot and rough with a big risk of punctures, but the drivers are very professional and they know what to do. I would like to see three cars at the finish and if we can score some points as well, then even better. We’ve got a good development plan for Sardinia, with Esapekka as well, but the most important thing is to do the mileage so that we can learn as much as possible.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “I’m looking forward to the rally, but it’s going to be much hotter and more slippery than Portugal, with a bigger cleaning effect. Punctures are going to be the big thing: because the surface is quite hard, the roads don’t get so rough or degrade on the second passage but any loose rocks don’t get pushed back into the surface either. Instead they just stay on the road and this is what can puncture your tyre or even damage the damper. There are some things that you can do to