Despite riding the crest of the wave currently in the WRC, Toyota were careful not to make any wild predictions going into his weekend’s Rally Portugal.
Even after their current WRC star Ott Tänak took a stage win on Thursday evening’s opening SuperSpecial, Toyota Gazoo Racing team boss Tommi Mäkinen was still hesitant to make any predictions. And how right he was to be cautious…
Sometimes you are brought down to earth with a bang, and sometimes it’s two bangs! And that’s what happened to the Japanese rally team, which is based in Finland, when in quick succession the team lost two thirds of their attack within two stages of this morning’s restart in the Portuguese city of Porto.
First, it was the WRC’s current superstar and recent Rally Argentina winner Ott Tänak who was the first of the Yaris WRC trio to stop when his car’s engine temperature went through the roof causing him to immediately retire.
Then on the following stage, it was Jari-Matti Latvala who retired with his Yaris WRC’s front-right suspension in tatters, out for the day with the team at least hoping to get JML out again tomorrow under Rally2 rules to possibly challenge for points on the Power Stage on Sunday afternoon.
"Disaster, it's just a disaster this morning," Toyota Gazoo sporting director Kaj Lindstrom told media at the lunch break. “We are so disappointed, especially for Ott after his pace in Argentina. He was on a mission and we had such high hopes for him and then the stage after that it was the problem with Jari-Matti. This is the third rally in a row with some problems for Jari-Matti so, for sure, he's not happy."
A despondent Tänak had been optimistic of a second win on the trot before his car’s engine had let him down on the first stage of the morning.
"We only drove five kilometres, but I had a good feeling and I knew we could fight for the win here," the Estonian said. "This kind of issue can happen, it's rallying. Normally they shouldn't happen, but they can. We can't say much in detail, we had to stop the engine; there's no point to run it [with the temperature issue]."
Toyota’s sole remaining Yaris WRC, driven by young Finnish star Esapekka Lappi, remains in the event running in ninth place albeit nearly 30s behind current leader Haydon Paddon after just six stages completed.
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