Four world titles in one weekend for Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota Gazoo Racing has enjoyed an unparalleled weekend of competition success, sealing four world championship titles.
On Rally Spain, Toyota sealed victory as the top manufacturer in the World Rally Championship (WRC), courtesy of a victory for Sébastien Ogier and points-placings for Kalle Rovanpera (already crowned the 2022 WRC World Champion) and Elfyn Evans.
Further south, second place on Rally Andalucia, the final round of the first FIA World Rally-Raid Championship (W2RC), was sufficient for Nasser Al-Attiyah and Mathieu Baumel to claim the driver and co-drivers’ championships. The result also earned Toyota the manufacturers’ title.
WRC Rally Spain
The WRC manufacturers’ championship success follows the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles won by Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen on the previous rally in New Zealand. It is the second year in a row that the team have won all three WRC titles, a feat that is all the more notable for spanning a major change in the technical regulations which saw the Yaris wRC car making way for the GR Yaris Rally 1 Hybrid.
Jari-Matti Latvala, Team Principal, said: “I am really proud of this team and what we have achieved this season. As Kalle said at the end of the final stage, we have such a talented group of people. That’s the first thing. Secondly, these people have the passion and desire to win. Finally, and most importantly, everybody is working together. When you have these ingredients, the results will follow.”
This takes Toyota’s WRC record to six manufacturer titles – three of them achieved since it returned to the series in 2017.
In his first asphalt rally since the start of the season, Ogier was among the pacesetters from the start, winning three stages on Friday to take the lead. He took three more stage wins in a commanding performance on Saturday, pulling ahead of the field. He went on to win the last two stage on Sunday, including the final Power Stage, to take his 55th career victory by a margin of 16.4 seconds.
Rovanperä was also in the battle for the lead on Friday when he was fastest in four stages. He eventually finished third, his hopes of second place fading after he was one of several competitors to suffer tyre damage on Sunday’s second stage.
Elfyn Evans was part of a close-fought top five at the beginning of the rally but was unable to match the rapid pace at the front. Two flat tyres contributed to him finishing sixth, a result which still made a valuable contribution to the team’s manufacturers’ points haul. Takamato Katusta was one place further back, having recovered from a difficult start to show strong and consistent speed in his TGR WRT Next Generation entry.
The 2022 season will conclude with Rally Japan on 10-13 November with the WRC returning to the country for the first time since 2010. The event will be staged on demanding asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures, with the service park in Toyota City near Nagoya.
Rally Spain final classification
1 Sébastien Ogier/Benjamin Veillas (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h44m43.9s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +16.4s
3 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +34.5s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +44.0s
5 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m16.5s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m51.1s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m19.1s
8 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m38.4s
9 Craig Breen/Paul Nagle (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m43.0s
10 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Vincent Landais (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +3m25.1s
(Results as of 14:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
W2RC Rally Andalucia
Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Mathieu Baumel clinched their championship titles in a hard-fought battle that went down to the wire on the final stage of Rally Andalusia on Sunday (23 October), the climax of the four-round inaugural W2RC series.
Although relatively short at around 60 miles, the stage proved a stern challenge. The Toyota Gazoo Racing crew pushed hard, winning the test in their GR DKR Hilux T1+ stage by 22 seconds. This left them just 6 seconds behind the overall rally winners after three competitive stages – a result that sealed championship success by 17 points ahead of their rivals Sebastien Loeb and Fabian Lurguin.
In addition to Al-Attiyah securing the W2RC drivers’ title by 19 points, Baumel won the Co-drivers’ title by the same margin. In the manufacturers’ championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing secured 163 points, 28 points clear of Bahrain Raid Xtreme.
Glyn Hall, Team Principal, said: “This was a stunning result today, not only in terms of Rally Andalucia, but also the W2RC title as a whole. We started the season with a win at the Dakar Rally and managed to make the most of our opportunities throughout the year to win the inaugural World Rally-Raid Championship title. The GR DKR Hilux T1+ has proven itself yet again, and we are extremely proud of everything we’ve achieved this year.”
The team will now shift their focus to the 2023 Dakar Rally, starting with a test session in an area similar to the terrain they expect in Saudi Arabia early next year. Thus far, the GR DKR Hilux T1+ has completed all four rounds of the 2022 W2RC without any technical problems, and the team will be aiming to build on this reliability during its final preparations for next year’s Dakar.
ENDS
