Kalle Rovanpera reveals that the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 is very handful and he faced difficulty to handle it on snow conditions after his recent test ahead in Finland ahead of Rally Sweden.
The Finn driver tested his new Yaris in Finland on January 26 and he was the first Toyota driver who tested this car on snow while it is still unknown if the Japanese team will do more tests on snow conditions before the start of the second WRC round.
It must be mentioned that Rovanpera will open the road at Rally Sweden as he has more points than the other full-time drivers on the championship.
"The feeling is positive but it is quite tricky, I have to say," Rovanpera answered when he was asked about how the car performed on the snow.
"We had quite a lot to do with the snow set up.
"This car is quite a handful on snow really.
"This is the first time with this car on the fast gravel and snow and you can really feel the weight quite a lot.
"Now when it is snowing and quite slippy it is really tricky to drive, and you have a lot of work to do in the cockpit to drive.
"You have to really be precise and accurate with the car. It doesn't seem so easy, but hopefully we can make it good".
Finally, Rovanpera is talking about his weekend at Rallye Monte Carlo while he admits that he did not feel comfortable with his car even from his tests: "Of course I was not impressed but I was really happy with the weekend overall as we started off with quite bad pace, and with a difficult feeling in the car.
"But we did a big job with the team to get the set up and the car was much better for me and then we could be at our own pace, and then I could be happy.
"I think we started the rally with quite similar cars to my team mates.
"I think the issue was just I didn't feel so comfortable at any point in the test.
"I was expecting to be struggling with the car.
"I think testing with the new car we had so much work to do we couldn't do set up all the time, as we had to validate many things and try many things.
"I just didn't find the right way in the test, where I want to have the car, and then in the rally we needed to find it as we were quite off the pace, and then it was easier in the rally to work on the set up".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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