Luca Rossetti: Toyota could have been even faster on ERC return

Toyota Motorsport GmbH is utilising the three-time European champion’s extensive knowledge and experience to develop its rear-wheel-drive customer focused machine.

Although Rossetti’s Rally Rzeszow debut ended ahead of schedule when he went off the road on Friday afternoon, the Italian has been buoyed by the project’s progress after he posted the fastest ERC3 time on the Qualifying Stage.

“The car is amazing to drive, really drivable and a lot of fun,” said the Italian. “The main plus of this car is the really high speed in the corner but we [couldn’t use this speed] because we don’t know if we can cut so I was taking it carefully, taking the time to increase the speed.

“We increase the speed more than one second per kilometre [from when we started]. Although we didn’t see a big step on this rally because of the road condition I hope we can continue to develop because there are a few things we can do to increase the performance of the car.”

Rossetti’s countryman Luca Bottarelli was also in action on Rally Rzeszow as the ACI Team Italia’s ERC young driver development programme got underway. Unfortunately for Bottarelli, a heavy crash on stage eight inflicted considerable damage to his Motorsport Italia-run GT86 CS-R3 and prevented him from going any further.