Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala has explained why the turbo on Sébastien Ogier’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 wasn’t changed as a precaution after the blower failed on team-mate Elfyn Evans’ car on Friday’s first loop of Acropolis Rally Greece stages.
Fastest on the first stage of the afternoon loop, the Frenchman had extended his lead to 11.7 seconds before the turbo problem hit him on the next test. By the end of the day he’d dropped to fourth, shipping almost two and a half minutes to overnight leader Ott Tänak. Evans lost almost 10 minutes with the combination of his engine fault problem and stopping to change a puncture on the opening morning.
Latvala told DirtFish the plan was to change the turbo on Ogier’s car, but a change to the event’s itinerary following a delayed start to SS2 meant the team wouldn’t have had enough time to change the unit.
“There was a plan to be a flexi service,” said Latvala, referring to the regulation which allows the team to work on cars one after the other. “Because the stage was delayed, they cancelled the flexi service. We had two cars at the service at the same time. We had to put the people fixing Elfyn’s car to change the turbo [on his Yaris], so we can’t change two turbos at the same time.”
Latvala admitted the team was still investigating the issue, adding: “We don’t know exactly at this point [what caused the problem], but two cars have had a turbine compressor problem. This has been a bad day for Toyota, I can tell you honestly. Unfortunately there are days like that in motorsport, you have to accept that.”
Now chasing a record-equalling ninth world championship, Ogier was frustrated by the problem – but pointed out that mechanical issues were rare for his team.
“It’s always tough to take some mechanical issue like this on the turbo,” he said. “It’s a very rare failure. And to have two on the same team today was very, very unusual. Obviously for us, it made a big stop to what was looking so far to be a perfect day. With great speed from second on the road, we took 45 seconds to the championship leader.
“I’m sure the team is working flat out to understand what happened today and I trust them that they can find a solution that it’s not happening again.”
After a day of incredible drama for Toyota – with Takamoto Katsuta retiring the third factory car with accident damage – Ogier admitted there remained the potential for more to come across the weekend and third-placed Thierry Neuville remained in his sights.
“Let’s try to put pressure on him,” he said. “I’m sure we can still do things.”
Saturday takes the crews south to the roads around Loutraki, with classics such as Thiva and Aghii Theodori sitting in wait.
I trust them that they can find a solution that it's not happening again.Sébastien Ogier
