Drivers named Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera of the Toyota Gazoo Racing, World Rally Team have completed the first full day challenge in the Rally Monza without the outbreak of any kind of drama. The members had taken upon the task to drive through challenging conditions at the Italian track and have successfully completed it without any hiccups on their way to victory.
There were five stages wherein the drivers had to use their skills to carefully manoeuvre their way through the historic banking, access roads and gravel sections. These constant changes of terrain would have made the stages tricky in any conditions, but were made extremely difficult by almost non-stop rain during the day.
The drivers and teams chose the best tyre option for the low-grip conditions. The snow tyre (without studs) was handy for the drivers. With this tyre fitted, drivers' championship contenders Evans and Ogier both recorded a fastest time during the afternoon and closed up on the rally leaders. Ogier ended the day ahead in third overall, 12 seconds from first place, with Evans 5.1s behind him in fourth. Rovanpera also set strong times and is sixth overall, and only 24.8s away from the leader.
Tommi Mäkinen, Team Principal, stated that "It was a very tricky day and I knew that quite a lot would happen out there in such difficult conditions. But all of our drivers did a very good job, no question about it. They didn't make any big mistakes and that was very important today, and we have three drivers all still in the fight on the rally.
"However, there is still a long way to go and I'm sure that the championships will not be decided until the Power Stage on Sunday, especially with what is to come tomorrow on the mountain roads." he added.
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Sébastien Ogier, the driver of car No. 7 mentioned that- "It has been an eventful day for us. We had good pace but there were also some small mistakes and issues which cost us some time. However, the most important thing is that tonight we are still in the fight for the win and that’s what matters. Tomorrow there is going to be even more room to make differences with our rivals with the very tricky conditions that await us in the mountains. Our road position should be good as well if there is fresh snow. Let’s see what we can do."
"Overall, today's been reasonably OK. There's been no mistakes, and no time lost. Perhaps it was not spectacularly fast either, but I feel that in the difficult conditions it was important to strike a balance between going quickly and also not making mistakes." said Elfyn Evans, the driver for car No. 33. Toyota Gazoo Racing.
"We've seen a lot of standing water, especially in the ruts throughout the second pass of the stages, so that's been tricky. It looks like we’re going to have another very challenging day tomorrow. It's been winter conditions out on the the stages today but I believe it's changing hourly, so we have to wake up in the morning and see what awaits us." Evans added.
"I think the plan today was to drive without any big risks, and we didn't do any mistakes, basically. There was only one bad stage time on the second stage this morning where we lost a bit too much; otherwise it was quite good. The conditions were extremely tricky with the standing water, said Kalle Rovanpera (Driver car 69)
"In the afternoon it was starting to be really difficult, but we at Toyota Gazoo Racing chose the snow tyre like many of the others and it worked really well. Tomorrow is going to be really tricky: I think we have to see the conditions in the morning and then we decide what we do in terms of tyre strategy." Rovanpera added.
