After a hugely successful home event in Finland, the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team now heads to Rally Germany for the next round of the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship season. As only the second pure asphalt event for the Yaris WRC, the main objective is to further develop the car on sealed surfaces. The team aims to maintain its confidence, while switching to a new focus on asphalt.
Rally Germany is known for providing a mixture of different types of asphalt tests during the rally. These include twisting roads through vineyards, the notoriously tough Baumholder military area and fast country lanes. The differing characteristics of these roads and the often-changeable weather conditions can make car set-up and tyre choice difficult.
The rally has a new base this year at Bostalsee and begins with a new super special stage in nearby Saarbrucken. Another new spectator-friendly stage, Wadern-Weiskirchen, is run three times on Friday around the Mittelmosel and Grafschaft vineyard tests. On Saturday, the action moves to Baumholder for nine stages, including two passes of the 41.97-kilometre Panzerplatte. Sunday features two stages run twice: the new Losheim am See and St. Wendeler Land, which acts as the Power Stage and finishes up on the edge of the service park.
Although better known for his exploits on gravel, Latvala has a decent record in Germany, twice finishing second, in 2012 and 2015. Hanninen on the other hand has only contested the rally once before, back in 2011. Lappi last year claimed the WRC2 win on the event and finished seventh overall.
