Jari-Matti LATVALA

Ott Tänak continues to lead Rallye Deutschland with just three stages remaining, with his advantage now standing at 43.7 seconds after enjoying a clean run through the second full day. His fellow Toyota Yaris WRC driver Jari-Matti Latvala is third overall and in a very close fight for second place, while Esapekka Lappi is not far behind in fifth. The second full day of the rally consisted of two stages in the Baumholder military ranges and two in the Saarland countryside, each run twice either side of mid-day service at Bostalsee. Tänak started the day with a 12.3s lead over Sebastien Ogier, which he maintained with consistent speed until his rival dropped away with a puncture during the afternoon. Latvala began the day with a stage win on Arena Panzerplatte to move up from fifth to fourth. He climbed up into third three stages later, and set another fastest time on Romerstrasse 2 at the end of the day to reduce the gap to the driver in second place to just 0.8s. Lappi showed particularly strong performance on the high-speed country stages, winning the first run through Freisen and coming second on three other occasions. That allowed him to end the day only 6.3s away from fourth place. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “We are in a really good situation going into the final day of the rally, with all three cars inside the top five positions. It couldn’t be much better. Ott was managing his lead really well. Now he has a big gap and I think he is looking quite comfortable, although there are still some long stages coming tomorrow. Also, it is clear that Jari-Matti is really enjoying the close fight he is having and that is great to see. Both he and Esapekka have a chance to gain places tomorrow and I think they can be feeling very confident about their chances.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “It has been a really enjoyable day. It started well this morning and then I was delighted with how the afternoon went. I couldn’t match Dani Sordo’s pace in the military area, but then on the Saarland stages on the farm roads I tried to push harder. He was better in one area and I was better in the other and now we are really closer to each other. To be fighting like this is a really nice feeling and I am looking forward to continuing the battle tomorrow.” End of day three (Saturday): 1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2h23m27.1s 2 Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +43.7s 3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +44.5s 4 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +52.5s 5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +58.8s 6 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m50.7s 7 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m51.2s 8 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m57.0s 9 Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) +2m20.4s 10 Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +2m34.4s (Results

Friday’s action took place mostly on the narrow and winding vineyard roads in the Mosel valley, seen as some of the most challenging of the championship. After narrowly conceding the lead on the morning’s first stage, Tänak was then unbeaten for the remainder of the day. Ahead by 7.2s at mid-day service, he then claimed a clean-sweep of fastest times in the afternoon to gradually increase his advantage further. Team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi have been part of a close four-way battle for fourth throughout the day. Latvala holds fifth position overnight, only one second away from fourth, while Lappi is seventh and just 0.1s adrift of sixth. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “It is absolutely brilliant to be in this position, with six fastest stage times out of seven so far. Ott seems to have absolute confidence with the car and is able to make it look very easy, even though it is not. This great performance on asphalt is the product of all the hard work that the whole team has done since the beginning of last season. I think that Jari-Matti and Esapekka also have a good feeling with the car. This can be a difficult rally to find the confidence with all the different conditions, but they are in good positions going into tomorrow. Anything can happen on Panzerplatte: it is pretty rough in places but it is very fast and you have to push flat-out.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “This morning I lacked a little bit of confidence in the conditions: with my road position there was more dirt coming on the road than I was used to here before. In service we made some changes with the front differential and the afternoon was definitely better for me. I was very happy with what we did on the second run over Mittelmosel in particular. It’s going to be a good fight tomorrow. For me, tomorrow’s stages are the best ones on this rally. It’s wider and you can use racing lines more, and that’s what I like. Also, the roads will be cleaner than today and that should suit me better.” End of day two (Friday): 1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 59m22.6s 2 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +12.3s 3 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +27.4s 4 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +37.8s 5 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +38.8s 6 Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +42.7s 7 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +42.8s 8 Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +58.0s 9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +59.0s 10 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m21.4s (Results as of 19:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com) What’s next? On Saturday, the drivers face the notorious Baumholder military training area, where there are frequent surface changes and large ‘Hinkelstein’ kerbs to catch out the unwary. Panzerplatte is the longest stage of the rally at 38.57 kilometres, and

Rallye Deutschland has kicked off in a positive fashion for the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. Following this morning’s shakedown, where the Toyota Yaris WRC set the first and second fastest times, the rally began with a super special stage in St Wendel, where Ott Tänak set the best time to claim the early lead. Shakedown was held over a 5.52-kilometre stage near the service park at Bostalsee, with the drivers undertaking multiple runs as they made final adjustments to their cars before the start. Tänak set the quickest time in shakedown with Jari-Matti Latvala second fastest, while Esapekka Lappi was eighth, just 1.8 seconds off the pace. The first stage of the rally was just two kilometres in length around a tight and twisty course. Tänak won the stage by 0.1s, with Lappi and Latvala both within 2.6s of his time. Quotes: Kaj Lindström (Sporting Director) “It is good to get the rally underway with the fastest time and no big issues. Earlier, we had a promising shakedown with the first and second best times. Of course, the results in shakedown never count for anything at the end of rally, but it is good to see that car is performing OK and that the drivers are all happy. As always on this rally, we will be watching the weather particularly closely. Even at the start of this week, the forecasts showed no rain, but now it looks like there is a risk of rain tomorrow, which could make the vineyard stages very tricky for everybody.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “In shakedown, the first aim was to get the feeling with the driving for asphalt. Initially, it felt quite different after so many gravel rallies in a row. Doing four runs on the shakedown helped me with that. I was also working with the setup as there were a couple of things I wanted to clarify after the tests, and at the end of shakedown I was happy with the car. I made a small mistake in the super special stage and stalled, but it isn’t the end of the world. Tomorrow we may be looking at the weather a lot as this is a rally that can sometimes be won or lost on the tyre choice.” End of day one (Thursday): 1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2m11.2s 2 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Skoda Fabia R5) +0.1s 3 Ole Christian Veiby/Stig Rune Skjaermoen (Skoda Fabia R5) +0.2s 4 Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +0.4s 5 Jan Kopecky/Pavel Dresler (Skoda Fabia R5) +0.6s 6 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +0.9s 7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1.0s 8 Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +1.1s 9 Umberto Scandola/Andrea Gaspari (Skoda Fabia R5) +1.3s 10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Ford Fiesta R5) +1.4s 12 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1.5s 15 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2.6s (Results as of 20:30 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com) What’s next?

Following on from victory on its home gravel roads of Finland, the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team travels to Germany with the aim of another strong performance on the varied asphalt stages of Rallye Deutschland (August 16-19). This is the first event on asphalt since Corsica in April, providing drivers Jari-Matti Latvala, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi with the chance to demonstrate the continuing progress of the Toyota Yaris WRC. The terrain on Rallye Deutschland is so diverse that it can be considered as three asphalt rallies in one: the twisting roads through the vineyards overlooking the Mosel river close to Trier, the fearsome Baumholder military training area with many different challenging surfaces, and the fast and narrow country lanes around the service park at the Bostalsee lake in the Saarland region. Tyre choice and car set-up can be further complicated by the often changeable weather conditions. This year, the town of St Wendel hosts the start and the finish of the rally, including a super special stage to begin the event on Thursday evening. Friday begins with two stages around the vineyards before a spectator stage on the way back to the service park, with all three stages repeated in the afternoon. There are eight stages on Saturday, combining the famed Panzerplatte tracks on Baumholder with country lanes to the south. Sunday begins with a return to the vineyards for two runs over Grafschaft followed by the Bosenberg Power Stage close to the finish. Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 7) “After Rally Finland I am feeling relaxed and I have a good feeling about Rallye Deutschland. I hope we can continue where we left off and maintain a good rhythm until the end of the year. I think our car should be good in Germany: last year we were already quite competitive there. I really enjoy the small country roads through the fields, which are narrow but fast, and the military area which also has some nice sections. We just have to be prepared for everything when it comes to the weather, because it can be very changeable.” What happened last year? Juho Hänninen finished one place away from the podium in fourth place for Toyota after taking two stage wins on a rally he had not competed on for six years. This including winning the notorious Panzerplatte stage, the longest of the rally. Jari-Matti Latvala also took two stage wins and finished in seventh place, while Esapekka Lappi finished a tough event with a stage win of his own on the final day. Press release TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC