Toyota Gazoo Racing is looking to secure a hat-trick of victories at Rally Sweden, after a great performance on the opening round of the season at Rallye Monte-Carlo with two Toyota Yaris WRC cars on the podium.
Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans both had fierce fights with the frontrunners of Rallye Monte-Carlo, switching positions between each other until Sunday when Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville stormed pass them to take the win.
Last season the World Rally Champion Ott Tänak won Rally Sweden and two-year earlier Jari-Matti Latvala took the first victory for Toyota.
For first time the Toyota Gazoo Racing team will bring five cars, with the normal line-up of Ogier, Evans and Kalle Rovanperä.
Katsuta Takamoto will be entering his second round of his eight-round campaign this season, the Toyota Development Driver took his best career result at Rallye Monte-Carlo.
In the fifth car which is entered by Latvala with his own private team Latvala Motorsport Oy, will be the second Toyota Yaris WRC to not wear the team colours as last year the two-time WRC champion Marcus Grönholm made his last appearance in his career, a late 50-year-old present. Juho Hänninen who is a former driver for the team will be Latvala’s co-driver.
“Rally Sweden has been a successful event for our team so far and we will aim for another top result there this year. There have been some question marks over how the conditions will be, but I hope that the organisers will be able to put on a safe and spectacular rally as usual.” Tommi Mäkinen, Team Principal, said.
“Rallye Monte-Carlo was very positive for us as our new drivers all looked very comfortable in our car, and I am confident that they can all perform well in Sweden too. As we have seen before, road position can be very important on this event, but we will have to wait and see exactly how the conditions are next week.”
