The Japanese manufacturer has claimed victory in all six WRC rounds so far this season, but in Greece it’s Hyundai and Ott Tänak who have set the pace. If the Estonian avoids trouble on Sunday, he’ll secure his first win of the season.
Tänak leads Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier by over 40 seconds, although nearly 100 competitive kilometres remain on Sunday. Toyota lost two cars on Saturday when both Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta retired on the same stage at the start of the afternoon loop.
“We had a bit of everything today. A couple of the guys went off. The front-runners held their positions, but honestly, Ott’s pace was so strong that Seb just couldn’t match it,” said Toyota team principal Juha Kankkunen to RallyJournal.com
“No one was particularly amused. It’s always disappointing, but this is rallying and anything can happen. Fortunately, our top guys made it to the finish. Otherwise, it would have been chaos. We’ve seen events where all the cars have had issues at once.”
Rovanperä’s retirement raised questions about whether something had already broken on the car before the off. Co-driver Jonne Halttunen reported a brake failure over the team radio, but Rovanperä himself said he had simply braked too late. It appears the driveshaft was damaged during that braking incident, which sealed their retirement.
“We won’t know for sure until the car gets back. I suspect something may have happened. Taka said it straight—he just braked too late on a slippery surface. The car went up a bank and the wheels were off the ground—nothing you can do in that situation,” Kankkunen explained.
Sami Pajari was forced to sit out Saturday due to a technical issue that couldn’t be resolved during Friday evening service. The fault has now been identified and fixed, allowing Pajari to rejoin the rally on Sunday.
“We found the issue, thankfully. A pipe had cracked, causing an oil leak. If left unrepaired, there would have been a fire risk because the oil was dripping onto the exhaust. Luckily, we checked the same parts in the other cars as well,” Kankkunen said.
“The engineers were surprised because the parts were brand new. But even new parts can fail. Most likely it was either a manufacturing weakness or heat-related. Heat certainly played a role. The car has now been fully checked and reassembled. Sami will drive tomorrow.”
Rovanperä and Katsuta will also be back in action on Sunday. Having already retired, they have nothing to lose and are free to attack the day’s stages in pursuit of additional points. However, all three will suffer from poor starting positions compared to the front-runners.
“There’s nothing wrong with Taka’s car at all. It only needs standard servicing. Kalle’s car will get whatever repairs are necessary. The plan is for all five cars to start tomorrow,” Kankkunen confirmed.
“For three of the cars, the game is essentially over, so we’ve no other option but to go flat out. Points tomorrow would be extremely valuable. We can afford to take risks since the guys are fast and we’ve got three cars that can attack. Tomorrow is still up for grabs.”
