Teams ready to break the ice

Le Toyota Gazoo Racing n’a pas chômé après son succès au Monte-Carlo avec Sébastien Ogier. Just one day after completing the rally Monaco, the team was already at work in Finland with Takamoto Katsuta. The structure headed by Jari-Matti Latvala has its permanent test base near its workshops in Jyskä on the outskirts of Jyväskylä. This allowed him to run his three crews without reducing his quota of testing days planned for the season. After the Japanese, Elfyn Evans came from Wales for his day on the snowy paths, then Kalle Rovanperä took over. The week ended with the discovery of the Yaris hybrid by Lorenzo Bertelli. One of the problems encountered by the Japanese was to manage to transmit to the ground all the power provided by the boost at start-up while avoiding slipping too much and tearing out the nails.

Bien décidée à profiter de sa base permanente elle aussi installée en Finlande, Hyundai a programmée trois journées, une pour chacun de ses pilotes avec en éclaireur Esapekka Lappi sur une route dotée de bosses impressionnantes. Thierry Neuville was the 2^e to drive with the i20 and Craig Breen completed this session.

Durant cette même période, M-Sport a permis à ses deux équipages de découvrir le maniement de la Puma sur la neige et la glace. Contrairement à ses rivales, le commando anglais a pris ses quartiers en Suède non loin de là où va se dérouler le rallye (9-12 février). Dans de bonnes conditions d’enneigement, Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Louis had the opportunity to check how their mount reacted to contact with the walls of powder. Since the temperatures were not too extreme for the region, it was not completely possible to observe its behavior on hard ice. The Frenchman and the Estonian will find out during the race.

Two days before the start of reconnaissance in Sweden, Tänak, Katsuta and Lappi will compete in a national rally in order to further perfect the experience with their Rally1. Ott will be at home while Takamoto and Esapekka will play in Finland.