The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, admits that it is a very difficult period for Sebastien Ogier's career as the last one has been very frustrated with having crashed in three consecutive rallies.
The eight-time WRC Champion had extended his part-time deal with Toyota for one more season, but his three wins and his three finishes on the second place put him on the contention for his ninth WRC title, thus he decided to participate with the GR Yaris Rally1 for the rest of 2024. At Acropolis Rally Greece, he was second overall until the start of Powerstage, but he rolled his Yaris 1.59Km into PS. They managed to get to the finish line, but they dropped to 16th position in Greece. At Rally Chile, he was the leader of the event for the first two stages, but he lost 14 places when he had to stop to change a wheel in Stage 3. Despite the fact that he managed to gain some places back and to be ninth at the end of Stage 7, he went off the road due to a broken suspension after hitting a rock in Stage 8 resulting in having to retire from the day and to restart under the SuperRally regulations. At Central European Rally, he completed the penultimate day of the event at first place, but he dropped to second after a lock-up on the opening Sunday stage. The drama continued for him and Vincent Landais as they had a crash on the penultimate stage of CER resulting in forcing to retire as the wheel of Yaris was broken. All these crashes had a consequence on his WRC title bid as he has left even behind Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak, but his focus is to help Toyota to defend its crown from Hyundai at Rally Japan which will be held next month.
"Sebastien called me after the crash and he was very, very disappointed", Latvala said.
"I think this was hurting him a lot.
"He said it’s not been normal what’s happened to him, with three accidents in a row.
"He was already frustrated in Chile.
"After Greece he was still really happy with the fighting spirit, Chile was frustrating and then today at CER was really frustrating for him.
"I’ve seen him frustrated before but maybe this was one of the most difficult days for him for a long time.
"But this is rallying and I said to him, we had to push, you had to push, we had to go for it, it didn’t work out.
"The speed is the most important thing.
"Without the speed then you have nothing".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Toyota
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