GAZOO Racing Clinches Victory at Croatia Rally

The GAZOO Racing (GR) World Rally Team (WRT) recently secured yet another impressive win this season for its GR YARIS Rally1 vehicle in round three of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). Building on his victory at Rally Sweden in February, Kalle Rovanperä made a thrilling finish during the Croatia Rally, extending his FIA World Rally Drivers’ Championship lead to 29 points. As round three of the season concluded, the team had under its belt 14 of the 19 stages across the event, enabling Toyota to lead the manufacturers’ championship by 42 points. 

Despite the challenging weather and road conditions due to heavy rain, Rovanperä was in superb form throughout the rally - together with co-driver Jonne Halttunen - in the No.69 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 and won six of the eight stages on the first day to open up an advantage of more than a minute over his rivals. On the second day, Rovanperä clinched a stage win to take a lead of almost 20 seconds into the deciding leg and continued that performance into the final day.

Akio Toyoda, President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation, commented, “Kalle and Jonne; congratulations on your victory. This win at the Power Stage was unbelievable as it must have been not an easy rally with the unstable weather. The team has been conducting various tests and developments for two months since Sweden, and I want to thank all members because Kalle’s great driving is the result of their cumulative efforts. The hard work will pay off for sure, and will lead to the base of Toyota’s car making. I believe we can repay the fans by showing exciting rallies and keeping on pursuing ever-better cars. Lastly, to the fans; thank you very much for your continuous support.”

Over the years, Toyota has been participating in many different forms of motorsports, ‎including Formula One, the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the Nürburgring 24 ‎Hours endurance race. Toyota’s participation in these events was overseen by separate ‎entities within the company until April 2015, when Toyota established GR ‎to consolidate all of its motorsports activities under one in-house brand. Representing ‎Toyota’s belief that ‘the roads build the people’ and ‘the people build the cars’ - GR highlights the role of motorsports as a fundamental pillar of Toyota’s commitment to ‎making ‘ever-better’ cars. Harnessing years of experience gained under the extreme ‎conditions of various motorsports events, GR aims to forge new ‎technologies and solutions that bring the freedom, adventure and joy of driving to everyone.

Round four of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship is the Vodafone Rally de Portugal - which will take place between 19 and 22 May - and will feature classic stages on sandy and rocky roads.