FORUM8 Rally Japan 2023
16. 11. – 19. 11. 2023, Toyota • Toyota Motorsports Club (TMSC) + MOSCO • asphalt 304.12 km - (cancelled 22.53 km) • total distance including road sections - 958.95 km • Other years
Info
SS22
"It feels pretty nice after last year. It wasn't easy with the conditions, its been a long weekend. Thanks to the team, a 1-2-3 at home is an incredible result."
"I enjoyed a lot this season, I'm glad to have this opportunity to do some races. I wanted to be here to help the team secure this result."
"We can all be happy to achieve this result. Also I am so happy for Taka, he did an amazing rally."
"For sure it was important to find some speed. I have to thank the whole team. The first half of the season was good, the second half was not good enough from me. Looking forward to the future."
"In terms of the speed, it was very good. I have to bring this speed to next season. But still very disappointed. Huge thanks to all the fans."
"Honestly I get frustrated very easily when I'm not on the pace, and this year we haven't been on the pace. But we gave it a go."
"Happy it's over now. We could have been in the fight given our pace. I apologize to the team."
"It was a challenging weekend, experiance was a key. We made a gap on the first stages and then we control it even Munster put a pressure on us."
"We put wet tyres on the rear and it was a big slide, I enjoyed the last stage of the season."
"I'd like to send kisses to my kids watching at home."
"We are the champions, it's amazing! I want to say thanks you to Maciej, Orlen team, my sponsors and my wife, who supported me a lot."
SS21
"Its not over till its over."
"We need to finish the job, but so far its looking good for the team"
"I don't think I have done a great job this weekend, but we'll take it. It's gonna be nice for the team,"
"All is now under control. It hasn't been during the weekend, but now I feel all good."
"Really no grip, its drying up but there is less grip than this morning"
"I'm still looking for the grip, all weekend long I couldn't find it."
SS20
"Extremely difficult. Zero grip, I was at walking speed down the end there"
"Really difficult conditions again, just a safe drive through. Two more to go"
"I felt a bit better than in the morning. I made a small change, I could be just a bit faster in every corner"
"Never trying to match Taka. Its just your stories you're making up"
"I have no grip at all, I don't know why. Its quite strange"
"The softs are the best choice for the powerstage, even if it doesn't matter"
SS19
"Still quite tricky, this one was more slippy than I was expecting"
"Definitely an extremely difficult rally from the start to the end"
"I thought the last one was bad but this was even worse! Not nice."
"Of course I need to push, so I used the barriers like Sweden. Like Mario Karting!"
"Its another challenging stage, maybe a bit easier than the previous one."
SS18
"It didn't seem so slippery, but I think it was just a change of surface. We spun twice."
Spin
"You just don't know. If someone wants to make a really big push, they can take a minute in there. So just trying to cover that."
"Some sections are cleaning a bit, but then some places with the cuts are getting more dirty. Slipping and sliding all the time."
"I have no grip, same as Friday. Na mokrých to prostě nefunguje."
"We have nothing to fight against Taka. It's nothing new this year, we can't do anything."
"To be honest I felt so slow. Its so difficult conditions."
"Horrible, horrible. I'm making the line everywhere. For the last day of rallying, you couldn't imagine anything more difficult than this."
SS17
"We had a better tire choice. It was really tricky, the first part was quite greasy."
"I'm not sure they'll be a big powerstage push today, but we'll see."
"We're feeling good, we have the intermediate tires in there, I expect Munster to be on softs."
"Conditions will be really dificult on the next two ones."
"The feeling is OK, but for sure there are slippy places."
"Bin it or win it. And I tried to bin it."
Spin
"This was probably the easiest stage for the day. I don't really have a plan, I will follow my feeling."
SS16
"It's not normal that I'm good at this! I think 22 superspecials would be good for me!"
"There's so many people in the stadium. Thanks for coming! I will push tomorrow to the very end."
"It's cool when there's people watching. We tried some new things. The time was not good, but I don't really care."
"Great crowd to be honest, definitely a great event for rallying."
"It was not an interesting day for us. We are in the race for the team, and try to set some good times and have fun."
"We put on a new setup for tomorrow, lets see how it will work."
"A lot of people, I had a bit of a heavy landing on the nose."
SS15
"Tricky stage, you have to be 100% committed, but I wasn't 100% sure."
"Munster is making me work for it. He was on softs in the last stage, so he obviously gained."
"It's been a good day for us. We don't know what kind of surprise awaits us tomorrow."
"It was quite OK. Long day driving without any risks."
"I really like the stage. Its really high speed. But there's pines and needles on the road. Its not so easy."
"I have no hybrid, we have to investigate why."
SS14
Transmission
"Bwhorr. Snow, on hard tires. Not nice."
"I thought I was going to be a minute down. It was raining, I can't believe it"
"Its snowing! Its crazy, we thought we had seen the worst, but the weather is amazing here."
"This rally just keeps on giving! I don't know what to say, I just want to get to the finish."
"I think the hard tires are not the best in these conditions."
"It's snowing. Merry Christmas!"
"Target is fourth place, but it's not so close. Maybe some corners I was push too much and making mistakes, I need to find the balance."
"We are trying a few things on the car, that's all we can do. Rallying can be boring when you have trouble on the first day."
SS13
"The car went into shut down mode. We had to pull to the side and stop."
Handbrake issue
"It's very difficult to balance the risk. You're never happy when its like this, but it's what we've got to do for now."
"The hard tires are on the car. So far so good, they are working well"
"There is nothing really to fight for. We just need to get to the finish, but I'm enjoying the driving more in places"
"Its very dirty in the forest, so confidence was not really high in there. But where its dry and clean, I had the best feeling of the weekend"
"Quite OK. Got a foggy screen in the middle."
SS12
"Really tricky stages this morning. Its really slippery and difficult to judge"
"Happy with my superspecial, and thats not something I can say very often. I have zero idea on tire choices for the afternoon."
"It seems there are a lot more fans on the rally this year. Its cool to see all the people on stages like this"
"I didn't see any fans, but quite a fun superspecial."
"A lot of people here, so very enjoyable to drive."
SS10
Mechanical
Alternator
"Its' tricky. Last rally, but would still like to get some sort of feeling, which I haven't had this year. Still one and a half days to go."
"The target is to push as much as I can. I need to try to catch EP, I don't know if its possible. It's really slippy in that stage, especially now with the slick tires."
"There's no plan. The plan was to win, we gave it everything."
SS9
Accident
SS8
Accident
"Still a long way to go, so I keep pushing. Tomorrow is tricky stages and anything can happen."
Lost wheel
"I'm glad my mechanics were able to fix the car. The most important thing is now to bring the cars home"
"We beat Seb two times in a row! Something positive for the weekend!"
"Everything is now working okay."
"It was not so easy, I was a bit apprehensive. At least we are safe."
"It's been a very good day. So far so good."
"We've had a decent day. I didn't take any risks."
"It's a lot more slippery than yesterday. I haven't found the sweet spot with these wet tires."
Spin
SS7
"Its challenging, its not easy to manage the speed in these conditions."
"I'm trying to adapt the car for these slippery conditions. At least we are here. On dry conditions I feel better with my setup."
"I think we will lose on the last split, I went very slow. I didn't feel like taking risk."
"Thats all I can do now. It's quite difficult to catch the podium places, but we just keep pushing. I have to show something for the fans at least."
"I've been really slow, but at least we are on the road, thats the most important thing."
"This kind of day, you are happy to survive. Hopefully we can carry on like this, looks good for the team"
"Just driving very slowly, nothing else you can do. Frustrating?...haha...yes"
"I didn't feel so good, especially towards the end there it was very, very difficult"
"Quite OK at the beginning, a bit more grip than the other stages. It was quite narrow at the end."
SS6
"It was good, I like the fight. It's not easy to catch Mikkelsen. The stage is much more nice than this morning."
"We tried to not let Gryazin take more time. Its harder now to keep up with the Rally1 cars!"
"Keep pushing as much as I can. Thanks to the team that they fixed the car so perfectly. I need to catch my father, otherwise he will try to take my seat for next year!"
"It's quite embarrassing, but we have to accept it."
"We lost too much time this morning. When we saw Thierry on the side of the road, we knew not to push too hard."
"The car is sh***** itself. Trying to get through."
"Thats a shame about Thierry. This stage felt better, but still a long way to go."
"Safe and clean run through."
Accident
SS5
Accident
Accident
Mechanical
"I want to fight. I want to see the improvements we made in the setup."
"We could have won this morning as well. It's a shame, we have the pace. But never give up, just keep pushing."
"One ditch caught me and we stopped in the barrier."
"New issue, some electric problem, no anti-lag and throttle is in stage mode."
Hit an armco
"It was a challenging stage. Conditions are a bit more straight forward now."
"I didn't use the grip. For sure didn't use the full potential."
"It was quite OK. I was enjoying it more than in the morning, not cleaning the road, but its still difficult conditions."
SS3
Accident
"Rally1 cars are better, but Škoda is better in one area, we can see the road."
"Its impossible to fix, we just need to get to service"
"We were aquaplaning quite much. Its so crazy"
"Look at my screen, just tried to survive."
"I'm quite seasick to be honest. No reason to drive like this"
"The conditions are really, really dangerous. We shouldn't be driving in them. I have done a lot of rallies, but I've never been as scared as this morning"
"I can't really see where I'm going. It's all S***"
"It's quite extreme at the moment. There was so much standing water, it's crazy. Half of the stage I do without any visibility."
SS2
Accident
"Losing quite a lot of visibility, it was tricky. Happy to come through"
Accident
"It's very difficult, the road is changing all the time. Every time I try to go faster, I lose time,"
"I felt so slow, but also on the edge. Impossible to judge."
Spin
"It's the most difficult conditions I've seen, Central Europe was nothing like this. For sure somebody will have some issues today. Its not easy being first on the road"
SS1
"We were bad on this stage, like all Toyotas. The car was tricky to drive."
"We need to check why we lost 4 sec. I didn't risk, but still it is a lot to lose."
"I knew Taka was going to push. It was a fun, but the morning will be more serious."
"Pushing too much! I wanted to win this stage, but I was not quick enough. Tomorrow, lets see."
"It must be OK when you beat Seb!"
"It was good. It's difficult to calculate the speed. I didn't take any risks, it was fun."
"I just drive smoothly, but its me! I cannot drive jumps slowly!"
"Great atmosphere, just we have some small issue with a handbrake."
"Previous year we crashed on the first stage, so I tried not to do the same this year."