No Sébastien Ogier, but Toyota Gazoo Racing will still be able to count on the contribution of the reigning world champion crew at the Rally Poland.
The last few hours have been frenetic to say the least for the team led by Jari-Matti Latvala. Yesterday Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais were involved in an accident at kilometer 5 of the reconnaissance of the Goldap special, which will act as a stage on SS10 and SS14.
The French crew’s GR Yaris ended up colliding with another car – head-on, but on Landais’s side – which however was not part of the reconnaissance, being owned by an enthusiast and not an expert.
Both Ogier and Landais were taken to hospital for the necessary post-impact tests. The navigator was immediately discharged, while the doctors who treated the transalpine crew decided to keep Ogier under observation for one night, suggesting that he not race on the race weekend.
At that point, taking note of Ogier’s unavailability, Toyota Gazoo Racing presented an official request to the FIA to replace car number 17 – that of Ogier and Landais – with number 69, that of Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen.
Not only that, because the Japanese team has also asked the Federation to grant two reconnaissance passes to the two Finns to give them the opportunity to arrive ready for the start of the event which, we remind you, will start tomorrow evening at 7pm with PS1, a test show that will already make the rankings.
The FIA commissioners, after having taken note of Toyota’s official request, decided to grant the replacement of crew and car to Toyota. So Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen will take over from Ogier and Landais this weekend.
The reigning world champions will have, between today and tomorrow, the opportunity to carry out reconnaissance of the entire route. This is because the FIA International Sporting Regulations give permission for crew changes via articles 11.9.1 and 11.9.2a.
Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen will thus join the two starting crews for the entire season for Toyota, namely those formed by Elfyn Evans – Scott Martin and Takamoto Katsuta – Aaron Johnston.
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