Jari-Matti LATVALA

The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team ended a challenging event at Rally Poland by taking the win in the Power Stage with Jari-Matti Latvala. It was his fourth stage win of the weekend and gave him five points to add to his championship score, lifting him up into third in the standings. Latvala had retired from Saturday but before that he was involved in a close battle for the win, and led in wet and slippery conditions on the first day. Juho Hänninen also scored, finishing in 10th position. The final day was made up of four stages, ending with the Paprotki Power Stage. After having to stop during Saturday afternoon with a mechanical issue, Latvala restarted with the target of picking up points on the Power Stage, which he won by 4.9 seconds. Delayed by issues on Saturday, Hänninen moved back into the top 10 on the final day to score points for the sixth time this season. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “Today we achieved the objectives we had the beginning of the day, with Jari-Matti taking maximum points on the Power Stage and Juho completing the rally in the top 10. Jari-Matti came back well from the disappointment of retiring yesterday. He again showed great speed, like he did earlier in the weekend. Overall, the result wasn’t what we expected but the pace we had here was a positive going on to Finland.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “Of course, it was disappointing to retire on Saturday but it was important that we came back and managed to win the Power Stage. I was focusing a lot before the stage, going through all the corners and the braking points in my mind, and it paid off. We scored five more points and it gives me the confidence again that our car is very fast and we can challenge our rivals in the rallies that are coming up. Thanks to the team for the work to prepare my car to restart today and ensure we could get these five points. They could still be very valuable in the championship.” PROVISIONAL FINAL RESULT, RALLY POLAND: 1 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 2h40m46.1s 2 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1m23.9s 3 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2m20.8s 4 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2m47.4s 5 Stephane Lefebvre/Gabin Moreau (Citroen C3 WRC) +3m11.8s 6 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m16.8s 7 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3m39.6s 8 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +4m39.1s 9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Citroen C3 WRC) +4m43.5s 10 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +4m53.7s 20 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +28m01.0s Retired Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2017 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FOR DRIVERS AFTER ROUND EIGHT: 1 Sebastien Ogier 160 2 Thierry Neuville 149 3 Jari-Matti Latvala 112 4 Ott Tanak 108 5 Dani Sordo 82 6 Elfyn Evans 57 7 Hayden Paddon 51 8 Craig Breen 43 9 Juho Hänninen

Juho Hänninen ends Saturday of Rally Poland in 11th position, after a challenging day in which every team hit problems. Jari-Matti Latvala maintained his place in the lead battle until encountering a mechanical issue on stage 16 that forced him to stop from third place. He will return to action tomorrow under Rally 2 regulations. The longest day of the rally, featuring nine stages and 144.74 kilometres, proved to be extremely tough, with some more rain in the afternoon and deep ruts forming on the soft gravel stages. Hänninen struggled to maintain turbo boost pressure in the morning and had a slow puncture on stage 15 in the afternoon. Latvala had a clean run until he stopped. Today he won one stage, and was just 5.8 seconds off the overall lead at one point this morning. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “Obviously a very tough day for us, after we already lost Esapekka yesterday. Now Jari-Matti has had some problems. We have to keep working hard and learning to keep getting better. It’s a pity what happened. Anyway, we will look at the car to understand exactly what happened and hopefully Jari-Matti can score some Power Stage points tomorrow. It was also a tough day for Juho. But I hope he can still end the rally with some points as well. It’s still possible for us to score points with both our remaining cars here, so that is now the target.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “I’m very disappointed that we had to retire for the day. On SS16 I had to stop due to technical reasons. So that was it for the day for us. Up to then my feeling with the car was good. We’ve lost a valuable opportunity to score points that would have been important for the championship. Still, the only thing we can do is fight back now, because we never give up, and I’m looking forward to returning to action tomorrow.”

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team driver Jari-Matti Latvala has been firmly involved in a close lead battle on the first full day of action on Rally Poland. Setting the early pace on extremely wet, muddy and slippery stages in his Yaris WRC, Latvala led the field at midday service and ended the day third. Latvala made a great start to the day, going second fastest on the opening test before winning two stages in a row as he moved into the lead. In the afternoon, he slipped to third on the leaderboard as he struggled more in the deep ruts that formed on the second pass of the stages, but he is only 6.6 seconds off the lead. Juho Hänninen is also in the points in eighth place, despite also having trouble in the ruts during the afternoon. Esapekka Lappi was holding fifth place when he broke the front-right suspension of his car while taking a cut on the fourth stage. He was forced to stop and unfortunately the damage cannot be repaired so he will not restart tomorrow. Quotes: Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal) “Today was a positive day in conditions that were very difficult for all the crews. Jari-Matti was driving brilliantly during the morning to be in the lead, and he is still in a really good position at the end of the day. For Juho it has been a bit more difficult, but he has avoided mistakes, which are really easy to make when the stages are like this. For Esapekka, it was disappointing that his rally has ended so soon. However, we look forward to the rest of the rally as part of such a close battle at the front.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “The morning was very good. I was happy with the car: it was working really well in the fast sections, and it was also OK in the more slippery sections. The afternoon was not so good: I didn’t go so well in the ruts, which were quite big because of the rain. We will look at what changes we can make but it’s difficult to know in these conditions. With everyone so close, it will be an exciting day tomorrow. We will be ready to fight from the first stage onwards.” END OF DAY 1 (FRIDAY): 1 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 56m21.2s 2 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1.3s 3 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +6.6s 4 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +35.1s 5 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +39.6s 6 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +51.7s 7 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m11.0s 8 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1m28.9s 9 Stephane Lefebvre/Gabin Moreau (Citroen C3 WRC) +1m37.0s 10 Mads Ostberg/Ola Floene (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1m42.7s Ret Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) Topics: Rally Poland is notable for featuring some of the fastest roads in the World Rally Championship. Last year, it was the second-fastest rally

Rally Poland started with varied weather conditions that could hold a clue about what is to come over the next three days. Shakedown was held in largely muddy conditions, while torrential rain meant that the ceremonial start was cancelled. However, conditions later dried up sufficiently for the super special stage to go ahead this evening. The side-by-side 2.5-kilometre stage was made damp and slippery by the earlier rain, which meant that all three Toyota Yaris WRC drivers exercised extreme caution. Jari-Matti Latvala ends the day holding fourth overall, ahead of team mates Esapekka Lappi in sixth and Juho Hänninen in 34th, who received a 10-second penalty for a jump start. Lappi had a minor engine problem on the stage that did not affect his speed, and he could return to parc ferme safely. Quotes: Tom Fowler (Chief Engineer) “The muddy conditions in the shakedown meant that the grip levels were really inconsistent: you had some really muddy places with no grip and other places that were more sandy and offered quite a lot of grip. Our work was entirely focussed on engine preparation for these fast stages: we completed everything that we planned to do, so we’re very happy. With the heavy rain, the super special stage surface was extremely slippery, which meant our drivers had to be careful. You can’t win a rally on a super special stage, but it’s easy to have a problem. We think we know what the issue was with Esapekka’s car, and we’ll try and fix it in service tomorrow before he starts the stages.” Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10) “The car felt good in the shakedown but it wasn’t particularly easy to get the right feeling because of the mixed conditions. I’m happy with the times and where we are at overall. But it’s very early days. I made a small mistake on the start of the super special stage, but we have a good feeling with the car, we’re in a solid position overnight and we’ll see how the weather is tomorrow. It’s all looking good so far.” END OF SS1 (THURSDAY): 1 Elfyn Evans/Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) 1m44.4s 2 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +0.8s 3 Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +0.9s 4 Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1.3s 5 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1.4s 6 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1.5s 7 Hayden Paddon/Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1.5s 8 Stephane Lefebvre/Gaban Moreau (Citroen C3 WRC): +1.5s 9 Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jaeger (Citroen C3 WRC) +1.6s 10 Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1.8s 34 Juho Hänninen/Kaj Lindström (Toyota Yaris WRC) +11.8s (Results as of 23:30 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com) Press release TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC