TOP PAGE
ENGLISH
JAPANESE
|
CONNECT WITH US:
Home
About
Services
Contact
Log in
Home
Press release
Jun 17, 2022 17:14 JST
Source:
Toyota Motor Corporation
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing into Africa to defend Safari crown
SAFARI RALLY KENYA: Preview
TOKYO, Jun 17, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team heads to Safari Rally Kenya on June 23-26 with the goal of defending its crown on the iconic African event.
2022 GR YARIS Rally1
The Safari made a long-awaited comeback to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar in 2021 when Sebastien Ogier led a one-two finish for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing. Ogier is making Kenya his third WRC appearance of the 2022 season as the team targets a 10th victory on the event for the Japanese marque.
The team's first priority is to return to the podium after a challenging previous round in Sardinia, although Kalle Rovanpera still left the Italian island having increased his drivers' championship lead to 55 points. Both Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans will be motivated for the trip to Kenya after experiencing its pitfalls on their debuts there last year. Takamoto Katsuta, on the other hand, travels back to the scene of his maiden podium finish (after finishing second to Ogier one year ago) as he looks to continue his 2022 scoring streak for TGR WRT Next Generation.
Having previously featured incredibly long stages on roads that were still open to the public, today's Safari Rally runs to a format similar to other modern WRC rounds. Still, the drivers and cars face incredibly demanding gravel roads with some very rough and rocky sections, while the weather has the potential to dramatically change the conditions in a very short space of time.
Shakedown takes place on Wednesday before the rally begins on Thursday lunchtime from capital city Nairobi, with the nearby Kasarani super special kicking off the competitive action. The rest of the weekend is centred around the service park on the shores of Lake Naivasha, around 100 kilometres to the north-west. Friday's repeated loop of three stages around the lake includes a brand new test, Geothermal, as well as the weekend's longest: the 31.25 kilometres of Kedong. Saturday takes place further north close to Lake Elmenteita with two passes of three familiar stages from 2021, although Soysambu has been extended and Elmenteita itself will be run in the opposite direction to before. A trio of stages south of Naivasha are all run twice to form Sunday's final day, including the new Narasha test and Hell's Gate, which hosts the rally-ending Power Stage.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
"It was exciting to have the Safari Rally back on the calendar last year and even though the rally is very different to before, the spirit of the event is the same: it's more about endurance than outright speed. At one stage it looked like it would be difficult for us to even be on the podium and in the end we finished one-two. So again this year we need to be prepared for anything to happen, and it will be another big test for the Rally1 cars. The conditions can look good during reconnaissance and then turn out to be very demanding in the rally. It's not rough all of the time but you can get quite a lot of big ruts with many really soft and sandy places. But all four of our drivers can count on the experience they gained last year and have some idea of what to expect."
Sebastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
"I'm looking forward to returning to Kenya. Last year we had a really nice welcome and a great atmosphere. It was something special and different to what we are used to. To win was the cherry on the cake and it will be great to try to repeat that this year with a bit of knowledge of what to expect from the stages. We saw that it can be a very tough rally; I think nearly everybody had an issue at some point and we came back from over two minutes down to win. So it's definitely a rally where you have to never give up, and this year with the cars still being so new, we might have to be even more clever than before."
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
"Even though we have experience from last year, it's always difficult to know exactly what we're going to face on an event like the Safari Rally. There's always an element of the unknown, and we saw last year that the conditions can change massively from one area to the next. Some sections can be very soft sand, some parts are much more hard-packed, and in other places it's very rough. It's a big challenge for the drivers, for the cars and for the engineers as well. I've had a good feeling with the GR YARIS Rally1 on gravel so far and the speed has been there. Safari requires something slightly different in terms of setup but hopefully that positive feeling will still carry forward."
Kalle Rovanpera (Driver car 69)
"I think the Safari Rally will be another interesting weekend. Of course Sardinia was maybe not as strong a rally for us as we wanted it to be, but I'm hoping that in Kenya maybe we will not lose so much time opening the road and we can try to have a good weekend. Last year, it was a good rally for us overall, we were just a bit unlucky to get stuck when we did at the end of Friday. This year we will try to avoid things like that and tackle the event in a better way, because we see a lot of difficult conditions there and things we don't normally see in modern rallies. So for sure it's a special place and you need to approach it a bit differently too."
Please visit www.wrc.com for the latest.
Source: Toyota Motor Corporation
Sectors: Automotive
Copyright ©2024 JCN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Japan Corporate News Network.
Related Press Release
Toyota Releases Sales, Production, and Export Results for February 2024
March 28 2024 12:35 JST
PEVE to change name to TOYOTA BATTERY Co., Ltd. and produce batteries for a wide range of electric vehicles
March 27 2024 14:13 JST
Toyota to Open New Tokyo Head Office in Shinagawa in FY2030
March 22 2024 15:15 JST
Toyota: Clarification of the Roles of and Expectations for Outside Executives, Revision of the Independence Assessment Criteria, and the Changes to Members of the Board of Directors and the Audit and Supervisory Board Members following the 120th Ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting
March 21 2024 15:47 JST
Sales of Evolved GR Yaris to Start in April, While Purchasing Lotteries for WRC Driver-supervised Special Editions Start Today
March 21 2024 15:31 JST
TMF Collaborates with the Okinawa Prefectural Police Headquarters to Develop Accident Prevention Approaches Integrating Police Accident Data with Vehicle Data
March 19 2024 11:49 JST
The Future of Accessibility: Toyota Mobility Foundation and MaRS Discovery District Launch the Mobility Unlimited Hub in Toronto
March 08 2024 09:35 JST
TMC Strengthens Battery Production Capabilities
March 06 2024 16:25 JST
Hard-earned points for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing
March 04 2024 15:45 JST
Daimler Truck, Mitsubishi Fuso, Hino and Toyota Motor Corporation report progress on the collaboration based on the Memorandum of Understanding
March 01 2024 20:30 JST
More Press release >>
Latest Press Release
Eisai to Divest Rights for Merislon and Myonal in Japan to Kaken Pharmaceutical
Mar 29, 2024 15:51 JST
Eisai's Brain Health Self-Check Tool "NouKNOW" is Certified as "ME-BYO BRAND" by Kanagawa Prefecture
Mar 29, 2024 15:19 JST
Eisai: Discovery Research on Dual Orexin Receptor Antagonist Lemborexant Honored with PSJ Award for Drug Research and Development 2024
Mar 29, 2024 14:32 JST
TANAKA Memorial Foundation Announces Recipients of Precious Metals Research Grants
Mar 29, 2024 11:00 JST
Fujitsu Selected as CDP Supplier Engagement Leader
Mar 29, 2024 10:28 JST
Mazda Production and Sales Results for February 2024
Mar 29, 2024 10:00 JST
Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Receives Order from the University of Tokyo for "MiPoLin" Power Prediction and Lines Selection System
Mar 28, 2024 16:45 JST
Mitsubishi Logisnext Completes Demonstration of Automated Truck Loading, Leading to Start of Actual Operations in Japan
Mar 28, 2024 13:52 JST
Toyota Releases Sales, Production, and Export Results for February 2024
Mar 28, 2024 13:35 JST
TANAKA to Install 500 kW Fuel Cell System to Promote the Use of Hydrogen Energy at Production Plants
Mar 28, 2024 03:00 JST
PEVE to change name to TOYOTA BATTERY Co., Ltd. and produce batteries for a wide range of electric vehicles
Mar 27, 2024 15:13 JST
NTT and Olympus Begin World's First Joint Demonstration Experiment of Cloud Endoscopy System
Mar 27, 2024 15:00 JST
TANAKA Holdings Announces Green Loan Financing for Construction of New Head Office Building
Mar 27, 2024 03:00 JST
JFE Steel and Hitachi Jointly Started Providing Solutions for the Steel Industry
Mar 26, 2024 19:04 JST
La Banque Postale and JCB join forces to elevate payments experience for travellers in France
Mar 26, 2024 15:00 JST
Fujitsu Tech Leverages AI and Underwater Drone Data for 'Ocean Digital Twin'
Mar 26, 2024 10:24 JST
NEC develops marketing strategy planning & effectiveness simulation technology using generative AI
Mar 25, 2024 10:08 JST
Toyota to Open New Tokyo Head Office in Shinagawa in FY2030
Mar 22, 2024 16:15 JST
Hitachi Selected as CDP Supplier Engagement Leader for the Third Consecutive Year
Mar 22, 2024 16:04 JST
Mitsubishi Motors Celebrates Production of 100,000th fully electric minivehicle
Mar 22, 2024 15:34 JST
More Latest Release >>