Monday, 30 June 2025 21:53

Yamamoto and Kogure first Acropolis adventure

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TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program drivers Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure took on the legendary Acropolis Rally Greece for the first time on June 26-29, experiencing one of the toughest rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Featuring rough and rocky stages, Greece’s WRC round pushed both drivers and their cars to the limit, as did ambient temperatures of over 40°C.

Building on the lessons of previous rough gravel rallies in Portugal and Sardinia, Yamamoto showed good confidence and pace from the beginning. In the third stage he hit a big rock that had been pulled onto the road by a car ahead of him and damaged the rear-left suspension on his GR Yaris Rally2 car. He and co-driver James Fulton attempted a fix but ran out of time and would have to sit out the rest of the day.

Kogure meanwhile managed to complete the demanding first full day on Friday, even though he lost some time due to punctures, and registered some competitive stage times. Unfortunately he would crash out of the rally on Saturday’s first stage, heavily damaging the car. He and co-driver Topi Luhtinen were unharmed, but they would not be able to take any further part in the rally.

Yamamoto returned to action on Saturday and continued to show encouraging pace through to the finish of the rally on Sunday, even if it proved difficult to thread complete times together due to issues or interruptions on the stages.

Quotes:
Juho Hänninen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program instructor):
“This was certainly a very tough rally with the rough and conditions. The rally started well for Hikaru with a solid day on Friday with no big mistakes or issues, and the performance was also improved from the previous rallies. Then on Saturday morning he made a mistake with quite big consequences in that the car could not be repaired for him to restart. That was quite unfortunate after his mileage in Sardinia had also been limited. Yuki made a mistake on Friday morning that meant he missed a lot of the day, but he came back from that well on Saturday: it was probably his best day in the WRC with the GR Yaris Rally2 in terms of his speed, which was closer to the leaders that he has been before, and his Sunday was consistent too. These more technical gravel rallies were difficult for us last year but Yuki has made good steps and we’re really happy to see that. Now we move onto Estonia and Finland where the characteristics are a bit more familiar and hopefully we can see some more strong performance.”

Hikaru Kogure:
“Compared to the previous two rallies in Portugal and Sardinia, this event was much more demanding, with the more difficult parts of each combined into one. After analysing some onboards I found areas to improve going into Acropolis, which I put to the test here. From the very first stage on Friday I had to stop and change a tyre, so we had to be careful after that as the number of tyres we can carry is limited. We had a similar issue on Friday’s last stage but luckily it was only five kilometres from the end. The performance was better than the previous rallies but unfortunately on Saturday’s first stage we went off the road; it was a tricky corner with nothing on the outside and I had gone a bit too fast into the left turn beforehand, so then I was carrying too much speed for the tight right-hander that followed. I hope that the next event can be better.”

Yuki Yamamoto:
“I was very happy to reach the finish of this rally; I think it was probably the roughest and toughest rally that I’ve ever done. There were lots of things happening during the weekend. On SS3 I was quickest on the first split but there was a huge rock on the road that I wasn’t able to avoid because of how narrow it was, so I damaged the suspension and had to stop. Saturday was really rough and we had several tyre issues and damaged suspension arms which we had to replace between stages. But when I had a good feeling, the pace was there – I was in the top three or four fastest drivers on some splits. Each of these last three rallies was harder than the last, but the pace also getting better with each rally so I can be proud of this progress. I just need to find the right balance in future between fast stage times and staying out of trouble, but my confidence is good going into the faster gravel events that are coming up.”

Results (WRC2 class):

1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)              4h22m54.8s
2 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2)                    +53.8s
3 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2)                             +1m09.0s
4 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)     +2m22.0s
5 Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)                   +3m45.2s
6 Martin Prokop/Michal Ernst (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2)                          +4m19.8s

20 Yuki Yamamoto/James Fulton (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)        +1h00m45.2s
Retired Hikaru Kogure/Topi Luhtinen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)

What’s next?

After a sequence of low and medium-speed gravel events, the WRC calendar shifts to the fastest gravel roads in the world. Rally Estonia, known for big jumps and plenty of flat-out sections, takes place on July 17-20.