Team boss Tommi Makinen has reportedly signed Jari-Matti Latvala in what will be an all-Finnish line-up for Toyota’s return to the World Rally Championship.
After withdrawing from the WRC at the end of the 1999 season to make way for what would be Toyota’s unsuccessful F1 plunge, the Japanese maker returns in 2017 to campaign a Yaris WRC.
Latvala is expected to be announced at the team’s launch next week alongside the already confirmed Juho Hanninen.
Makinen, a four-times WRC champ for Mitsubishi in the 1990’s, is set to sign Esapekka Lappi as the third Toyota driver in what will be a trio of three Finnish drivers.
The news means that the eventual home for four-times WRC title winner Sebastien Ogier will either be with Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport team or a privately funded and entered VW assault.
It also leaves the door for Ogier to move back to Citroen still open but it is now only rated a remote possibility.
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