The Toyota Gazoo Racing team celebrates a fantastic double for the Gr Yaris Rally1 in its gravel debut at the Rally of Portugal, with Kalle Rovanperä taking his third win in a row ahead of teammate Elfyn Evans.
How the first kilometers of Rally1 went on gravel
In the first test of the new generation of hybrid cars, the Gr Yaris Rally1 was the car to beat, winning 15 of the 19 gravel stages over the weekend. Evans led the way from the early hours of Friday morning with very fast stage times, and Rovanperä joined him in the top two at the end of the first day after doing a fantastic job paving dirt roads as the championship leader for the first time in their career, the pair found themselves in a duo race on the longest day of the event, Saturday, and during the afternoon the lead passed to Rovanperä in difficult weather conditions. The Finnish driver had gained a 5.7 second lead over Evans at the start of the final day from five stages and won the opening test in the morning, with Evans responding to the first pass on the rally’s famous Fafe stage. But Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen finished by winning the penultimate stage and final Power Stage of the rally, securing the highest stakes to increase their championship lead.
The protagonists
In the end it was Rovamperä who got the better of everyone by winning rallies and power stages. According to team-mate Evans followed by a Deaf in excellent form on his debut on Rally1.
After being forced to retire from the stages on Friday and Saturday, Sébastien Ogier set off on the last day to gain further experience with the Gr Yaris Rally1 in his second appearance of the season. Unfortunately, the other Seb, Loeb, also failed to shine as we would have expected, first due to a touch that forced him to retire and then due to a technical problem.
Standings after the race
Leading the drivers’ classification is Rovamperä at 106 points, followed by Neuville at 60, Katsura at 38, Tanak at 37, Evans at 36, Breen at 34, Loeb at 27, Greensmith at 20 and Sordo tied with Ogier at 19.