TOYOTA GAZOO Racing (TGR) World Rally Team (WRT) has started the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with a double podium finish with its GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid Electric vehicles at Rallye Monte-Carlo. With the second and third place finishes, Toyota currently leads the manufacturers’ championship by one point.
Sébastien Ogier placed second in the No. 17 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Elfyn Evans finishing the competition third in the No. 33 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid Electric Vehicle. Both drivers were involved in an exciting fight for victory throughout the event into the rally-ending Power Stage which saw Ogier return to his hometown to compete following first-place victory at the Rallye Monte-Carlo in 2023.
Akio Toyoda, TGR-WRT Chairman, commented: “The start of our eighth WRC season was a new step for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT. Nine years ago, on 15 January 2015, I announced Toyota’s return to the WRC and explained the following: ‘Rally is the best place to strengthen people and cars because it is a sport in which you compete using cars based on production vehicles on the roads that our customers use in their daily life.”
Toyoda added, “For TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, WRC is not just a competition to win. We compete in WRC to make ever-better cars and make more people smile. The joys and disappointments we have experienced over the 85 events so far have led even closer to the cars for our customers. This is a very big step. We were not able to clinch first-place this time, but the continuous efforts of the team will certainly lead to achieving that success in future events. I trust Jari-Matti will lead the team like past years to continue to work hard and to make the 2024 season a great year.”
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin made an excellent start to their 2024 season at the beginning of the rally during the night of Day One, securing an early lead that they held until Day Three. Ogier triumphantly claimed the lead during Day Four when he recorded the 700th stage win of his WRC career and ultimately went into the final day just 3.3 seconds away from the first-place finisher.
The oldest and most recognizable event on the WRC calendar, Rallye Monte-Carlo is also considered one of the most demanding thanks to unpredictable weather conditions, which can bring ice and snow to the asphalt roads. The new and improved GR YARIS Rally1 Hybrid Electric Vehicle trumped the challenges of the championship equipped with strengthened functionality including new updates to further improve low-speed responses and torque curves.
Over the years, Toyota has been participating in many different forms of motorsports, including Formula One, the World Endurance Championship (WEC), and the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race. Toyota’s participation in these events was overseen by separate entities within the company until April 2015, when Toyota established TGR, to consolidate all of its motorsport activities under one in-house brand. Representing Toyota’s belief that ‘the roads build the people, and the people build the cars,’ TGR highlights the role of motorsports as a fundamental pillar of Toyota’s commitment to making ‘ever-better’ cars. Harnessing years of experience gained under the extreme conditions of various motorsports events, TGR aims to forge new technologies and solutions that bring the freedom, adventure, and joy of driving to everyone.
The upcoming Rally Sweden on 15-18 February is the next competition of the season and the only full winter event taking place on snow and ice. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has had new studs inserted into team members’ tires to grip into the track allowing drivers and vehicles to deliver some of the highest speeds of the year.
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Nissan Formula E Team is excited to announce a four-year global partnership with Petromin Corporation, a leading mobility solutions provider in the Middle East. The partnership will be primarily focused on the company’s EV charging subsidiary, Electromin, as the business looks ahead to a wider adoption of electric mobility in the region.
The Mercedes-AMG ONE has been the fastest production car on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife since October 2022 and has been unrivalled ever since. The only rival is the ONE itself. Now Mercedes AMG brand ambassador and DTM driver Maro Engel has once again significantly improved the lap time he set. With an officially measured and notarised time of 6:29.090 minutes for the 20.832-kilometre track, the hypercar with Formula 1™ technology beat its own record for production vehicles by over five seconds. This makes the Mercedes AMG ONE the first road car to beat the magic mark of 6:30 minutes. It is also the only series hybrid hypercar to date to have taken on the world's most demanding racetrack and is the undisputed leader in the super-sports-car class. In order to achieve the lofty goals they had set for themselves, meticulous preparation was necessary. In addition, the track conditions had to be ideal in order to beat the 6:30 minute target. On September 23, 2024, at 6:56 p.m., on his third timed lap, Maro Engel achieved the new record. With temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius (air) and 20 degrees Celsius (asphalt), the legendary Nordschleife was dry throughout and offered perfect grip.
Like Lewis Hamilton and George Russell on their Formula 1™ race weekends, Maro Engel also had to make the best possible use of the hybrid drive's electrical energy. This is particularly challenging, especially with a track length of more than 20 kilometres. Therefore, it is immensely important to use the right sections of the track to recuperate during braking phases and thus store energy in the batteries again.
To do this, Maro Engel utilised the AMG ONE's four-stage Energy Flow Control (EFC) system and in some cases deliberately took his foot off the accelerator a little earlier than he normally would. In technical jargon, this is known as “lift and coast”. Preliminary tests in the driving simulator in Affalterbach and on the Nordschleife itself provided the necessary insights, which the team and driver were able to optimally implement for the record lap. In accordance with the specifications of Nürburgring 1927 GmbH & Co KG, the vehicle was tested and documented by TÜV Rheinland to ensure that it was in standard condition. A notary confirmed that the record drive had been carried out correctly.
The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 heads into this weekend’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA) finale – the Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Road Atlanta – deep in the hunt for its first major title.
The new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 has enjoyed a stellar debut season of international competition. The car recorded a historic victory in the centenary edition of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa in June, a first for the British ultraluxury sportscar brand in the modern GT era. It also achieved Aston Martin’s first ever Autobacs Super GT class victory in Japan in the same month. As well as this, Vantage has clinched class wins in the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA, the Nürburgring Langstrecken Series and ADAC GT Masters through the summer.
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