After the fiasco at the Acropolis Rally in Greece, Toyota’s arch-rival Hyundai has pulled 35 points ahead in the manufacturers’ standings. With only three WRC rounds remaining, the new points system introduced this season makes it extremely difficult to close that gap.
Hyundai would need to suffer significant failures in the remaining rounds for Toyota to have a chance of claiming the manufacturers’ title. Toyota’s headquarters in Japan likely expect Latvala and his team to fight until the end, even though the task seems nearly impossible. After the Greek rally, Latvala had initially seemed ready to throw in the towel for the season, but he has since softened his stance.
Now, Latvala emphasizes that the focus is primarily on winning individual rallies. The first of those remaining opportunities comes this weekend in Chile.
“Our team is really motivated to do a good result in Chile and with Elfyn (Evans), Sebastien (Ogier) and Kalle (Rovanperä) we have a very strong driver line-up to fight for the win,” Latvala says.
“The stages there are generally fast and flowing, which should suit our drivers and our car. The one thing we discovered last year is that the tyre wear can be quite high when it’s dry so we need to pay attention to that.”
In the fourth Toyota Rally1 car in Chile, Sami Pajari will be competing in his second race with a top-tier car. His debut at the Finnish WRC round in early August was impressive, as he secured a strong fourth-place finish.
“For Sami, this is a chance to build on Finland where he did extremely well, and to see how he feels with the Rally1 car on different terrain and build up his experience,” Latvala thinks.
“And if everything goes well, those roads could suit him well and we could see another strong performance.”
