Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT aims to deliver strong performance in Croatia

MANILA: The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team targets to build upon its strong start to the FIA World Rally Championship's new hybrid era when the 2022 season resumes for Round 3 at the Croatia Rally on April 22 to 24.

The team is leading the manufacturers' championship, with Kalle Rovanpera topping the drivers' rankings after winning the first GR Yaris Rally1 round in Sweden last February. Elfyn Evans has also been among the leaders so far, and he is eager to reclaim his place on the podium in Croatia, where he was involved in a spectacular final battle with teammate Sebastien Ogier when the country made its WRC debut a year ago.

In a statement, Rovanpera said, “I have been waiting to get back in the car for Croatia and that’s always a good sign! We’ve only had two rallies but it’s always nice to have some good points in the beginning of the season. We are in the same situation as last year, leading the championship going to Croatia and hopefully we can do better there this time around. It will be a big challenge for us because we didn’t get to experience most of the stages last year, but we have been in this situation before with less experience than our rivals and I will do my best to manage. The feeling in the test was positive and I think there has been really good progress with the car. Hopefully, it will go well at the event, too.”

With the event not being on Ogier's list of selected rallies for 2022, Esapekka Lappi completes the TGR WRT lineup after placing third on his comeback in Sweden. Takamoto Katsuta finished fourth in Sweden, continuing his full season with TGR WRT Next Generation on a rally where he won two stages in 2021.

“Sweden was a great start to our season sharing the car with Seb,” Lappi stated. “I hope I can take the confidence from there, but that was in conditions I know well and something I’m comfortable with, while Croatia will be a completely new rally for me. But I’m still really looking forward to what we could do there. The car felt really good in the test. It had been a while since I had driven on asphalt and it’s crazy how impressive the grip is on this surface. You can also really appreciate how much extra power we have from the hybrid. It was a bit like a Finnish road with a lot of crests and jumps, which is not so common on asphalt and pretty fun. There’s also a lot of dirt on the roads and managing that is something I want to be better at. I want to perform well and have a clean rally and I’m sure we can do it.”

Croatia provides the first pure asphalt test for the new Rally1 cars after the two winter events in Monte Carlo and Sweden. The tournament will be held near neighboring Slovenia. Because there are so many different types of asphalt on the roads, grip levels are always shifting. Many parts are fast and flowing, with jumps and crests, while others are tricky and twisty.

After a shakedown on Thursday morning and a ceremonial launch in Zagreb in the evening, the rally will start on Friday with the longest leg of the event, comprising two loops of four stages all familiar from the 2021 event. Many of Saturday's action will be held just at the southwest of Zagreb, although the new Platak stage takes a longer journey to the Adriatic coast near Rijeka. After the midday service, all four stages will be repeated, just as they were on Friday. The rally's final day will happen at the north of Zagreb and will have a new stage, Trakoscan-Vrbno, which is run twice alongside Zagorska Sela-Kumrovec, which will host the rally's final Power Stage.

Photo from Toyota

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