Now he’s top of the table again: It took defending champion Kalle Rovanperä a little to get into the season. But after three fourth places in a row, the Toyota driver gave his calling card for the 2023 World Rally Championship (WRC) by winning the Portugal Rally.
However, the Finn has a tough task ahead of Sardinia: “It was nice to win again in Portugal. We will give everything to continue like this in the next rounds, but we know that Sardinia will be difficult.”
“Of all the rallies on the calendar, this is perhaps the toughest for me. When the weather is as hot and dry as it always is, it’s very difficult to be the first car out on track. It’s even more difficult this year because the 50th -Kilometer test is already driven on Friday.”
“It will be a weekend that will demand everything from us, but we will give everything to get the best possible result.”
Will the improved GR Yaris impress?
Not only for Rovanperä, who has never managed to get better than fifth place in Italy, but also for Toyota, last year’s rally with the Rally1 car was a difficult one. It was one of only two rallies where no Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 driver finished on the podium.
Sardinia is one of the coarse gravel rallies that Toyota struggled with last year. Toyota Gazoo Racing made improving the GR Yaris on this terrain a clear development goal for the Rally1 car over the winter. So far in 2023, Toyota has won four out of five rallies on a wide variety of terrains.
“Last year this event was a bit difficult for us, but since then we’ve made many improvements to the GR Yaris for coarse gravel, which have worked well in Mexico and Portugal,” says Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala.
“Sardinia is usually hotter than Portugal. This year, the Monte Lemo stage is almost 50 kilometers long. It hasn’t been that long since 2014. Tire management will play a major role, especially in the second round.”
“Kalle will be carrying a lot of ballast with him on Friday. But we have Sebastien [Ogier] and Elfyn [Evans] in better positions who can hopefully fight for victory.”