Elfyn Evans lost ten minutes due to turbo issues and a puncture. Takamoto Katsuta, meanwhile, was forced to retire after damaging his rear suspension. Ultimately, the third Toyota driver, Sebastien Ogier, also faced difficulties during the afternoon loop.
Ogier’s car began to falter towards the end of the second afternoon stage, and a technical issue ruined his run on the final stage of the day. It was the exact same problem that Evans’ car had experienced earlier in the morning.
“It’s been a tough day. The issue is purely mechanical with the turbo. In both cases, the cause was the same,” Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala told RallyJournal.com.
Everything seemed to be working against Toyota on Friday. The last two stages of the morning loop were delayed, which threatened to push the schedule too far back. In response, the rally organisers shortened the midday service break to just 30 minutes, which was a major blow to Latvala’s team.
“As the schedule began to stretch, the organisers decided to cut the flexi service that was initially planned. In the flexi service, we could have serviced one car at a time with 12 mechanics. Now, we had to service two cars simultaneously with just six mechanics,” Latvala explained.
“Six mechanics worked to replace the turbo on one car. It’s in a difficult spot, behind the engine. We couldn’t replace both turbos at the same time because there were other jobs that needed to be done on Ogier’s car. That caused the issue—there was no way to replace both turbos at once.”
It’s clear that if the schedule had remained intact, Ogier’s turbo problem likely wouldn’t have occurred in the afternoon.
“Of course, the first reaction is that if something breaks on a car, you try to make sure it doesn’t happen on the other cars. But this time, we didn’t have that option. The risk of a time penalty was too great, so we couldn’t take that chance,” Latvala added.
Hyundai came into Greece with a 20-point lead in the manufacturers’ championship. Friday’s problems threaten to swing the title race further in Hyundai’s favour. The disappointment in the Toyota camp was palpable.
“Especially when you consider that we really needed those points as we’re fighting for the manufacturers’ title. This day has been quite punishing for us. It feels a bit like we’ve surrendered, but we have to keep trying tomorrow,” Latvala lamented.
“We’re still in a position where we have two cars in contention for decent points on Saturday. And if something happens on Hyundai’s side, it could open up some opportunities. We also have to attack on Sunday. There’s still a little hope. We haven’t thrown in the towel just yet.”
