The Toyota team finished just off the podium in Tour de Corse, fourth round of the 2017 World Rally Championship. Jari-Matti Latvala won the Power stage and was 4th in the overall standings. He claimed the position by the incredible 0.1sec margin, leaving Citroen’s Craig Breen fifth.
Team Chairman Akio Toyoda watched the action personally
He was pleased with the performance and impressed by the team.
“One of the things that struck me most was the midday service on Saturday, when our mechanics made a number of important changes and completed the work just within the time limit, following the feedback from the drivers in the morning. Thank you to Tommi [Mäkinen] for assembling such a dedicated and professional team. The result was an improved car, and that perfectly reflects our philosophy of making ever-better cars. In Japanese we describe this as ‘kaizen’, which means continuous improvement. By carrying on in this way for the rest of the season, I am sure that we can continue to grow stronger”, Toyoda-san commented.
Tommi Mäkinen pointed out that the changes from Saturday made the cars better according to both drivers
“So this result is really a team effort, with the car being improved over the three days thanks to everyone’s hard work and collaboration”, he continued. “Finishing this close to the podium on our first asphalt event is a fantastic achievement and actually something I never managed myself as a driver: my best result in Corsica was sixth! Another great job by Jari-Matti, who drove brilliantly on the Power Stage in particular, and also from Juho [Hänninen], who was able to match Jari-Matti’s pace despite having nothing like the same level of experience. He can also feel proud at the end of this rally.”
Jari-Matti Latvala:
“The power stage was completely maximum attack: I was totally focussed on my driving. I knew that if I wanted to have fourth place I needed to have a perfect run and I nearly achieved that: there were a couple of places where we arrived too fast and had some understeer, and also one jump where we arrived completely sideways. I could see people running away, so I’m sorry if I gave them a fright, but in any case it was all under control, even though it looked spectacular! We’ve taken 17 points with fourth place and the Power Stage win, so this is a really fantastic result for our first rally on asphalt.”
Thumbs up! A good weekend for us as we complete the 10 000 corners with the #PowerStage win and a 4th position overall! #TourdeCorse #WRC pic.twitter.com/ymxqYM6192
— Miikka Anttila (@MiikkaAnttila) 9 April 2017
Juho Hänninen:
“About five kilometres from the end of the first Sunday stage I just missed a right-hand corner. I think it was maybe a problem with my pace notes, which perhaps were not clear. But in any case I went straight off the road and there was no chance to come back. So my rally finished there. It’s disappointing because we showed plenty of speed on this rally and came so close to the finish. But of course I am happy for the team as Jari-Matti achieved a very good result here.”
