Toyota’s dominance should be an inspiration, says Abiteboul

Toyota’s dominance at Rally Estonia should be used as “inspiration” by everyone connected with Hyundai Motorsport’s World Rally Championship programme, its Team Principal has said.

Kalle Rovanpera steamrolled the opposition at his favourite event on the calendar to make it three wins on the bounce in the Baltic state and further extend his lead at the top of the drivers’ standings.

Courtesy of thirteen consecutive fastest stage times he finished 52.7s clear of Hyundai’s lead driver Thierry Neuville, and bagged maximum points on the end-of-rally Power Stage to cap off a perfect weekend for the 22-year-old defending champion.

Neuville’s pace was slowed midway through Saturday by a front puncture, but the Belgian admitted that even without it he was no match for an in-form Rovanpera. He also spoke of his i20 N Rally1 “still missing something” when going up against the GR Yaris Rally1 on high-speed gravel events, the next of which is Rally Finland on August 3-6.

It was not an entirely fruitless exercise for Hyundai, though, as Neuville was followed home in third position by team-mate Esapekka Lappi, with Teemu Suninen – on his Rally1 debut – really impressing across the three days against much more seasoned opposition to round out the top five.

However, Abiteboul admits there is room for improvement if they want to prevent Toyota and Rovanpera from running away with the drivers’ and constructors’ titles respectively.

“It was important to have a clean weekend here in Estonia and that is exactly what we have achieved,” he said.

“We built on the good work that was done in preparation for the specifics of this event, which has not always shown the strength of our car. It has certainly paid off with another strong result and two podiums finishes.

“Congratulations to Thierry and Martijn and Esapekka and Janne [Ferm] on their incredible performance. Teemu and Mikko [Markkula] have also done a very good job; there was lots for Teemu to learn, particularly the hybrid system, and he didn’t put a foot wrong. We now look forward to seeing what they can accomplish in Finland.

“[But] we should not forget that once again Toyota has been dominant here this weekend, and even though we have made progress it is only as good as what the competition is capable of doing. We need to take that as inspiration for the steps forward that remain to be taken for the next events,” added Abiteboul.