Three of the team’s four drivers encountered issues with the GR Yaris while traversing water crossings during last weekend’s rain-impacted round on the Italian island.
Unseasonal rain showers created incredibly tricky conditions which also made the water splashes deeper and provided an extra challenge to crews.
Toyota’s GR Yaris appeared to particularly struggle in the water as Takamoto Katsuta was forced to retire from Saturday’s action when a heavy impact from a splash on stage eight damaged the front end of his car.
Team-mate Elfyn Evans also damaged his car in a water splash on stage 10, while Sebastien Ogier suffered a similar fate while leading the rally on stage 12.
The issue wasn’t limited to Toyota: M-Sport’s Ott Tanak stalled after a water splash before retiring due to an electrical fault. But Hyundai managed to avoid issues in the water altogether.
Latvala admitted that water splashes had proved to be the GR Yaris’ weakness but also highlighted that Kalle Rovanpera managed to avoid trouble in them on his way to finishing third.
“I think the performance of the car was good but of course we had this problem with the water splashes. But I can’t say that everything was because of the car,” Latvala told Autosport.
“We also need to maybe look at having water splashes on tests to see how the drivers approach them so we can have a bit of practice and improve a bit for the future. But Kalle didn’t have issues with them this weekend.
Source: Autosport