Jari-Matti LATVALA

The 2019 FIA World Rally Championship season kicks off on January 24-27 with one of the most demanding events of the entire year, the famed Rallye Monte-Carlo. The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, with its fast and experienced driver line-up of Ott Tänak, Jari-Matti Latvala and new signing Kris Meeke, will look to make the strongest possible start to its defence of the manufacturers’ title it won in 2018 and its fresh assault on the drivers’ and co-drivers’ crowns. Rallye Monte-Carlo is notorious for its difficult and changeable weather conditions, which can vary from dry asphalt to snow and ice – often within a single stage. This makes tyre choice a critical factor throughout the event, with drivers reliant on their ice-note crews to provide them with information on the latest stage conditions. The rally is based for much of the event in the French town of Gap, which will host the service park and the start on Thursday evening, before the opening two stages are run in darkness to provide a tricky start to the competitive action. Friday is the longest day of the rally, with two loops of three stages south-west of Gap. Saturday has two stages both run twice before a long drive into Monaco ready for Sunday, which takes place over a pair of repeated tests in the nearby mountains and includes the iconic Col de Turini. Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “Together with my co-driver Miikka, we are about to start our 13th full season in the WRC. There is still a lot of motivation to fight for rally wins, and maybe the drivers’ championship too: this is still the ultimate dream. The second half of last season was really good for us and if we can continue that trend then we should be right up there. We know the car is reliable and fast, so it is up to us drivers to get the most out of it. I have finished on the podium in Monte Carlo in both of the last two years with the Yaris WRC and it would be ideal to keep that run going, but the key is to have a clean weekend and minimise the mistakes.” What happened last year? The team enjoyed a great start to the 2018 season in Monte Carlo with a double podium finish. Ott Tänak came second in his debut in the Toyota Yaris WRC, already challenging for victory. Jari-Matti Latvala returned to the podium in third. Esapekka Lappi also showed a strong performance in the third car, holding fourth place until a small mistake on the final stage moved him down to seventh. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team is inspired by the motto: “ALL FOR WIN” as it competes throughout the 2019 season. Our goal in 2019 is to fight for all three crowns. All team members are aiming for this big goal together. We look forward to your continuous support! Press release TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team claimed the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title* in style at the final round in Australia with a rally victory for Jari-Matti Latvala. Esapekka Lappi finished in fourth place to help Toyota clinch the manufacturers’ crown in just the second season of its return to the WRC. It is the fourth occasion that Toyota has won the manufacturers’ title in the WRC and the first time since 1999. The strong performance of the Toyota Yaris WRC was demonstrated again on the final round, with Ott Tänak and Latvala moving to the top of the leaderboard during Saturday. Sunday was characterised by very muddy and slippery forest stages with the tricky conditions catching out a number of drivers. These included Tänak, who had to retire on the penultimate stage after hitting a tree. Latvala, co-driven by Miikka Anttila, avoided mistakes and took three stage wins on the final day to clinch victory by 32.5 seconds: the team’s fifth win of 2018. Lappi also won a stage to complete a strong drive in his final event before departing the team. Tänak, Latvala and Lappi finished the season third, fourth and fifth respectively in the driver’s standings, with Tänak fighting for the drivers’ title until the final day in Australia, and all three contributing significantly towards the manufacturers’ title. Quotes: Akio Toyoda (Team Chairman)  “Congratulations to Jari-Matti and Miikka for the Rally Australia win! I was very glad to see them on the top of the podium at the end of the year after what has sometimes been a tricky season. And with this victory, we could win the manufacturers’ title. I feel so grateful, as team chairman, that we could get such a great result in the second year of our challenge after returning to the WRC following 18 years away. I am so grateful to Tommi, who has kept strengthening the Yaris WRC to win this title, all the team members who supported Tommi, and the six drivers and co-drivers who kept driving the Yaris towards our goal. Thank you very much, and huge congratulations! I also feel glad that we could share this victory with the fans who kept cheering for us, and also our partners who have fought with us as one team. Thank you very much for supporting us.” Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “It’s an absolutely amazing feeling today. This was the toughest final round of a season that I can remember. Ott’s retirement so near the end was a big disappointment, but it was absolutely brilliant that Jari-Matti could win again. Esapekka also helped us score the points we needed. We started this project three-and-a-half years ago and we have developed much faster than we imagined. Last year we were here to learn and to gather data. In the second half of this season we were able to find a lot of improvements with the car. This is the result of the huge effort from everybody in the team, and I

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team heads into the final day of the 2018 season occupying first and second positions on Rally Australia courtesy of Ott Tänak and Jari-Matti Latvala. Esapekka Lappi completed a strong Saturday for the Toyota Yaris WRC in fifth overall. The team is closing in on its aim of the manufacturers’ championship, while Tänak continues to keep the pressure on in the drivers’ title fight. The team began the longest day of the rally with Latvala holding third position, Tänak in fifth and Lappi sixth. Within three stages during the morning loop, Latvala and Tänak had moved up into first and second places. With wins on six of the day’s 10 stages, Tänak was able to move ahead of his team-mate, and ended the day with an advantage of 21.9 seconds. Latvala was faced with the worst conditions when heavy rain hit the end-of-day super special stages, but he was able to hold on to second place with a margin of 4.4s. Lappi was also a stage winner during the afternoon and closed to within 3.8s of fourth position. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “It is looking very good for us at the end of the day. It was a great day for us with no major dramas whatsoever. The conditions in the super specials were not absolutely fair for everybody but fortunately it didn’t cause any big changes. All three of our drivers are doing a very good job, and I think they all know what is required tomorrow. To finish the season with a result like this would be brilliant.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “I had a really good morning. The car was working really well, I was enjoying the driving and we were able to gain some places. The afternoon started well but I was probably too aggressive with the tyres. They became very worn, so I had to back off and I started to lose some time. Then in the super specials we were unlucky with the conditions. Still, we are in second place and we just need to bring that to the end: this would be really important for the manufacturers’ championship and for myself and to finish the season with a good feeling.” End of day two (Saturday): 1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2h07m52.0s 2 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +21.9s 3 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +26.3s 4 Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) +46.6s 5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +50.4s 6 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m44.8s 7 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2m04.6s 8 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2m35.2s 9 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2m49.0s 10 Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +6m26.8s (Results as of 19:00 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com) What’s next? The final day of Rally Australia consists of three stages all run twice: Coramba, Sapphire and Wedding Bells. There is service at Coffs Harbour

Jari-Matti Latvala, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi all demonstrated the strong performance of the Toyota Yaris WRC as the final and deciding round of the 2018 FIA World Rally Championship season got underway in Australia. Latvala completed the first day of stages in third position, with Tänak and Lappi overcoming adversity to hold fifth and sixth respectively overnight: positions that help the team remain on course to clinch this year’s manufacturers’ title. Courtesy of their top five positions in the drivers’ standings, the Toyota trio were among the first cars on the road over Australia’s dusty gravel stages. Nonetheless, they locked out the first three positions on the opening test and each set a fastest time from the first four stages. Consistently strong pace from Latvala ensured that he ended the day just 8.7 seconds away from the lead and set for a much more favourable road position for Saturday, the longest day of the rally. On SS5, both Tänak and Lappi were caught out by a watersplash: the heavy impacts with the water caused Tänak to lose front bodywork from his car, affecting the handling, and forced Lappi to a brief halt with a misfire. Both maintained good speed thereafter however, with Tänak within 16.9 seconds of the lead with two days remaining. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “We had a very good start this morning, with all three drivers proving to be quite competitive and having a good feeling with the car. Unfortunately, Ott and Esapekka both suffered in the same watersplash: I think that maybe they were a little bit too sideways and this caused them problems. Jari-Matti was strong for most of the day and I think it is generally looking good for the team as we try to win the manufacturers’ championship. We have good road positions for tomorrow and we can be confident in our performance.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “Today has mostly been very good. This morning I did some mistakes and lost a little bit of time, but in the afternoon loop in the forest stages I was really satisfied with how it went: the driving was very consistent and clean. I did lose some time on the super specials, as I had the hard tyres and I was missing some traction. Still, everything remains close and tomorrow we will have a good road position, which is going to be important.” End of day one (Friday): 1 Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) 53m37.4s 2 Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +6.8s 3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +8.7s 4 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +12.5s 5 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) +16.9s 6 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +28.3s 7 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +38.2s 8 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +45.2s 9 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +47.2s 10 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m11.9s (Results as of 18:30 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)