TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team will take on the high-speed gravel roads of Rally Finland (July 26-29) with the clear aim of repeating its victory from last year. The rally is a home event for the team, which has a base close to the service park in Jyväskylä, as well as for its Finnish drivers Jari-Matti Latvala and Esapekka Lappi, while Ott Tänak can also count on large support from neighbouring Estonia.
Rally Finland is the fastest event on the WRC calendar, played out on smooth gravel roads through the forests. The stages feature many large jumps and numerous crests, where accurate pace-notes and the positioning of the car are crucial. The high speeds mean that time differences are smaller than usual, and mistakes are more easily punished.
This year, Rally Finland features a heavily-revised route with almost 65 percent of it different to 2017, and nearly 40 percent on roads that are new to the rally. It begins on Thursday evening with the mixed-surface Harju stage in Jyväskylä itself, before a total of 10 stages on Friday held mostly to the west. Saturday consists of eight stages to the south-east near Jämsa, totalling 142.86 kilometres. There are four further stages on Sunday, with Ruuhimäki as the rally-closing Power Stage.
