TOKYO, Feb 17, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will continue its mission to make ever-better motorsports-bred cars and put smiles on the faces of fans across the globe by competing with two GR010 HYBRID race cars in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, starting on Friday 28 February in Qatar.A crew of World Champion drivers will use their skill and close cooperation with engineers, mechanics and team partners to drive the team forward following TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s goal of developing people and technology through motorsports.Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries will compete together for a second year in the #7 GR010 HYBRID, while Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa join forces for the fourth time, aiming for their third drivers’ title together.Eight races on four continents – including the 93rd Le Mans 24 Hours in June – feature eight manufacturers contesting the 18-strong Hypercar class, including Alpine, newcomers Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot and Porsche. With the GR010 HYBRID, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing will challenge for its eighth manufacturers’ World Championship as well as its seventh drivers’ crown, and sixth Le Mans victory.The GR010 HYBRID broke new ground in endurance racing when it was unveiled as the first-ever WEC Hypercar in 2021. Since then, it has undergone various adjustments to enhance reliability and operability, which have combined with team and driver know-how to maintain a record-breaking run of title success.For 2025, the proven GR010 HYBRID package has undergone no significant changes and will enter its fifth season of competition as a tried and tested competitor. The only visible change to the 2025-specification car is the addition of new mandatory LED panels on the sidepod, which indicate position and pit stop timing to enhance the experience of fans at the track and at home.Qatar is the first destination on the 2025 calendar, for WEC’s traditional two-day Prologue pre-season test and the 10-hour Qatar 1812km race. In last year’s inaugural event, Nyck earned second on the grid, but a challenging race required a strong team effort to earn valuable points with fifth and eighth place finishes.Action at the 5.418km Lusail International Circuit begins with seven hours of testing each day on Friday 21 February and Saturday 22 February. Two 90-minute free practice sessions kick off the race week on Wednesday February 26, including one which ends after sunset. The starting grid will be determined in qualifying and Hyperpole on Thursday (5.40pm local, 3.40pm CET) while the race starts at 2pm (midday CET) on Friday 28 February.For more information, visit https://toyotagazooracing.com/wec/release/2025/rd01-preview/. Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

TOKYO, Feb 17, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. and Red Bull are proud to support “Red Bull Showrun x Powered by Honda,” a special event featuring an F1 machine showrun (demo run) organized by the International TOP Motorsports Experience Executive Committee [ITOM]. On April 2 (Wed), Honda and Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 machines will run through Tokyo. Red Bull Showrun featuring F1 machine is being held for the first time in six years. The first took place in 2019— when Red Bull Racing started to compete in the FIA*1 Formula One World ChampionshipTM (F1) with Honda’s power unit—on the iconic “Icho Namiki” at Meiji Jingu Gaien.Since then, the collaboration between Honda and Red Bull Racing achieved over 63 victories together in F1, secured the Drivers’ Championship four times (Max Verstappen), and claimed the Constructors’ Championship twice and demonstrated astonishing speed and dominance on the world stage.The Honda and Red Bull Racing partnership is set to conclude at the end of 2025 season.In this final year, ahead of the FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2025*2, this showrun event brings the speed, sound, smell, power, excitement, and atmosphere of F1 machines to the people.Come witness Max Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda, and other racing drivers push F1 machines to their limits in Tokyo. Tickets are required for admission. Ticket and venue details will be announced on the official website. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to charity or invested in local community initiatives.*1 FIA: Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile*2 held at Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture from Friday, April 4 to Sunday, April 6.Event DetailsTitle:Red Bull Showrun x Powered by HondaDate:Wednesday, April 2, 2025* Rain or shine; canceled in case of severe weatherLocation:Tokyo (details to be announced on the official website)Program:Demonstration runs with F1 machinesF1 machines:Red Bull Racing Honda “RB16B,” Honda “RA272,” and more* Honda “RA272” will not run in case of rain condition* Additional F1 machines to be announced on the official website once confirmedDrivers:Max Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda, and more* Additional drivers to be announced on the official website once confirmedTickets:Tickets to be announced on the official website once confirmedWebsite:https://redbullshowrun-poweredbyhonda.com/en/Organizer:International TOP Motorsports Experience Executive CommitteeChair:Princess Yohko of MikasaCooperation:Honda Motor Co.,Ltd., Red BullAbout the FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2025For details of the FORMULA 1 LENOVO JAPANESE GRAND PRIX 2025, visit: www.suzukacircuit.jp/eng/f1/ Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.

TOKYO, Feb 17, 2025 - (JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com) - Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta delivered a thrilling finish and another maximum score for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team as they achieved a one-two result on a spectacular Rally Sweden.The FIA World Rally Championship’s only pure winter event on snow and ice was one of the most exciting for many years. Evans and co-driver Scott Martin did an excellent job to lead after opening the road on Friday, heading a tight five-way battle for victory covered by less than 10 seconds. After a high-paced battle through Saturday, Evans would enter Sunday’s final leg leading Katsuta by just three seconds and with only a further 3.3s back to third-placed Thierry Neuville.Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston drove a superb rally in contention for a first WRC victory, and were quickest out of the traps on the final morning to win the first pass of the 29.35-kilometre Västervik and take the lead from Evans and Martin by 4.5s. Evans responded emphatically on the second pass of the stage, going 6.7s faster than anyone to reclaim the lead.Defending an advantage of 3.7s into the rally-ending Power Stage, Evans secured victory in style as he edged Katsuta to the best time by just 0.2s and to top the Super Sunday classification by 0.8s. His overall winning margin of 3.8s is the smallest in Rally Sweden history.The victory is a 10th WRC triumph for Evans and his second in Sweden, exactly five years to the day since he and Martin scored their first ever win for TGR-WRT on the very same event. Taking a maximum score of 35 points, Evans moves into a 28-point lead in the drivers’ championship over Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Ogier, who did not include Sweden in his partial programme of rallies.Following its 95th WRC win, Toyota has moved into second place in the all-time list of most successful manufacturers in the series. With two one-two finishes and maximum points from the first two rounds, TGR-WRT leads the manufacturers’ standings by 48 points.Kalle Rovanperä is up to third place in the drivers’ championship after he and Jonne Halttunen finished fifth overall in Sweden, plus fourth in the Power Stage and fifth on Super Sunday. Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen took seventh overall in their TGR-WRT2 entry.In WRC2, Swedish star Oliver Solberg started his title bid with a home victory in ninth overall. Driving for the Printsport team, Solberg led a one-two finish for the GR Yaris Rally2 car ahead of Finland’s Roope Korhonen of Rautio Motorsport.Quotes:Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)“The top five within a 25-second gap, and there are three GR Yaris Rally1s among them. The top two are Elfyn and Takamoto, with only a 3-second difference between them, and following them were three previous WRC champions including Kalle. This year’s Rally Sweden was really exhilarating as we started the morning of the final day with this situation.Congratulations to Elfyn and Scott for winning the rally! They have faced disappointing results in Sweden over the past few years, so it’s truly great that they finally won there again. Congratulations also to Takamoto and Aaron for finishing in second place! I assume Taka still has some frustration, but I hope this rally helped change something within him. Next up is the Safari Rally, and I’m counting on him to showcase his spirit of ‘returning to the finish line no matter what’.Both Elfyn and Takamoto delivered fantastic performances during the Power Stage. I was really excited. It was an amazing drive from both. Thank you for the perfect one-two finish! I also thank everyone in the team for building cars that allowed the drivers to compete comfortably until the end!For the next rounds, Jari-Matti will step away to temporarily return to driving in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship that starts next month, and I look forward to seeing his stories with the Celica. Juha Kankkunen will take over in his role as Deputy Team Principal, and his first event is one he has a strong connection with, having won it three times. I'm confident that Juha will take good care of the team and I'm also sure that the team will also support him.”Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)“This has been an incredibly close Rally Sweden and it’s been a nerve-wracking final day for us, watching two of our drivers fighting for the win. I’m really proud of both Elfyn and Takamoto for the way that they fought, and for how strong they have been mentally. We saw that from Elfyn and the way that he responded on the penultimate stage of the rally after losing the lead, and Taka has shown that he is ready to win and able to maintain a great performance under pressure without making mistakes. There were only a few seconds between the top drivers for the whole rally, and to fight like this for three days is remarkable. For our team to have scored the maximum 120 points from the first two rallies, we literally cannot have asked for a better start to the season and we are looking forward to Safari Rally Kenya.”Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)“It’s been an amazing weekend. We led for a lot of the rally but the margins were always tight and it was never really comfortable. This morning I got caught napping a bit in the first stage by Taka, who really made me fight for it, and thankfully we managed to turn it around and unlock good pace on the next stage. I’m very happy with the end result and to have won the Power Stage as well. It’s been a very good start to the season for us and we couldn’t really have dreamed of much better. Usually after a good Rallye Monte-Carlo it’s hard to score well in Sweden but the good conditions gave us a chance and I feel we made the most of it.”Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)“Overall it’s been a difficult weekend for me. We were trying to push hard but we could not have the pace or the performance that we wanted, even on this final day. It’s a big disappointment but this is the only snow rally in the season and now we need to focus on the next rally on gravel with a completely different tyre and work to be stronger there. I’ve been closely following the battle at the front and I’m really glad that both drivers could bring home the one-two and the maximum points for the team: well done to Elfyn who’s done a really good job, and I’m proud of my friend Taka also.”Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)“It’s been a really nice fight with Elfyn and with the Hyundai drivers not far behind us as well. It’s been a really intense battle for the whole rally and there was some pressure throughout but I enjoyed it a lot. At the end, I’m happy to have done a good job for the team, to bring the car to the finish and score some good points. Well done to the team for this result and hats off to Elfyn, who did an amazing drive on the penultimate stage. Next time I will be ready to push more to try and take that victory. I was able to manage the speed through the whole weekend and this is giving me more confidence for the future and a good feeling for Kenya.”Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)“Overall it has been a really enjoyable rally and it’s good to reach the finish without any big mistakes. It’s still quite disappointing what happened on Friday morning when the tyre came off the rim and we lost quite a lot of time, which then maybe gave us not such a good starting position for the next days. Still, I think we had some nice pace and some good moments, including some top-three stage times, and the feeling has been good. It’s been valuable learning and I’m grateful to the team for the support.”PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY SWEDEN1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h33m39.2s2 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3.8s3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +11.9s4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +16.8s5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +32.8s6 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m09.4s7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m27.0s8 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m08.6s9 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8m23.1s10 Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m05.6s(Results as of 12:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 2:1 Elfyn Evans 61 points2 Sébastien Ogier 33 3 Kalle Rovanperä 314 Thierry Neuville 295 Ott Tänak 266 Takamoto Katsuta 257 Adrien Fourmaux 218 Mārtiņš Sesks 89 Sami Pajari 610 Josh McErlean 62025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 2:1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 120 points2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 723 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 254 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 11What's next?The legendary Safari Rally Kenya – the only African round of the WRC – hosts round three on March 20-23. Since returning to the calendar in 2021, the event continues to provide gruelling conditions on rough and rocky roads as well as high speeds across open plains.About Toyota Toyota strives to be a strong corporate citizen, engaging with and earning the trust of its stakeholders, and to contribute to the creation of a prosperous society through all its business operations.Our corporate principles form the basis of our initiatives, reflect values that enable action, and drive our mindset.For the latest Toyota-related news and information:https://tinyurl.com/ToyotaPressReleasenewsroom@global.toyota Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire via SeaPRwire.com.