Sep. 07, 2018
Rally Turkey: Preview
Toyota Yaris WRC to take on new ground in Turkey
The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team faces a brand new challenge on Rally Turkey (September 13-16): the 10th round of this year's FIA World Rally Championship and a new addition to the calendar for this season. The Toyota Yaris WRC, driven by Jari-Matti Latvala, Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi, will take on the gravel event fresh from back-to-back victories in Finland and Germany.
- Yaris WRC Car 8
This will be the first WRC round in Turkey since 2010, and will be based in Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast. A mixture of smooth roads close to Marmaris and rockier mountain tracks to the north near Mugla are anticipated, but all of the stages will be brand new to the crews, who will use the pre-event recce to create their pace-notes from scratch. With testing in Turkey before the rally not permitted, the Yaris WRC was instead put through its paces on gravel in Portugal last week.
The rally will begin on Thursday evening with a street stage in Marmaris before two loops of three stages on Friday near Mugla. On Saturday the rally heads west for three stages all run twice, and the rally concludes on Sunday with four stages, including the Power Stage that will finish right by the service park.
Quotes
- Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)
- "The last two rallies have been brilliant for us and our aim is of course to continue in that way, but there are many unknowns about Turkey for every team because it is a new rally. I did drive in Turkey when the WRC went for the first time in 2003: I remember that the conditions were very hard and the roads were pretty rough, but we are going to a different area this time and we don't know exactly what the nature of the stages will be. We have been preparing as well as we possibly can and we had a good test last week in the south of Portugal, where hopefully we simulated the conditions that we will face very well, especially the high temperatures."
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