Japan finale for Toyota’s Gazoo Racing’s title contenders

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team arrive on home roads for Rally Japan this week (6-9 November) looking to celebrate their manufacturers’ title success in style while their drivers continue their thrilling championship fight.

The team secured the manufacturers’ crown for the fifth successive year at the previous round, the Central European Rally. This event also set up an exciting showdown for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles over the two remaining rallies in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Elfyn Evans, targeting his first drivers’ championship, has a lead of 13 points over two of his team-mates – eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier and two-time winner Kalle Rovanperä – who are tied on points following the latter’s win on the asphalt roads of Central Europe.

Evans has won the last two editions of Rally Japan, leading a TGR-WRT 1-2-3 ahead of Ogier and Rovanperä in 2023 before Ogier once more joined him on the podium in a one-two finish one year ago.

Takamoto Katsuta arrives at his home rally – where he finished on the podium at the first attempt in 2022 – boosted by a strong run to fourth place at the Central European Rally. TGR-WRT2 driver Sami Pajari contests the event in Rally1 machinery for the first time, a year after securing the WRC2 title on Rally Japan driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car.

Eight GR Yaris Rally2 cars are entered into this year’s event, representing more than half of the Rally2 field, led by this year’s WRC2 champion Oliver Solberg (Printsport). Competing for WRC2 honours on this event will be three drivers run by Spanish team Teo Martín Motorsport – Jan Solans, Alejandro Cachón and Diego Domínguez – plus TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto on his home event and a trio of regular competitors from the Japanese Rally Championship, including this year’s champion Heikki Kovalainen (Rally Team Aicello) as well as Norihiko Katsuta (LUCK with ROOKIE Racing) and Fumio Nutahara (Nutahara Rally Team).

Since returning to the FIA World Rally Championship calendar in 2022, Rally Japan has been held on mainly narrow and twisting asphalt roads in the forest-covered mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures around the city of Nagoya. The Toyota Stadium once more hosts the service park.

Shakedown and the opening competitive stage take place on Thursday at Kuragaike Park prior to a welcome show in the heart of Toyota City in the evening. Friday features a loop of three familiar stages to the east – Inabu/Shitara, Shinshiro and Isegami’s Tunnel – that will each be repeated following mid-day service. Saturday takes crews north-east for the new Obara stage plus more familiar Ena and Mt Kasagi tests, all of which will be repeated in reverse order after a tyre-fitting zone at Enakyo Park. A new super special stage in Toyota City rounds out the day.

Sunday’s final leg takes place towards the south-east near Okazaki, which hosts two passes of a super special and a tyre-fitting zone. These separate two runs over the Nukata and Lake Mikawako stages.

Team quotes

Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal): “Rally Japan is always an exciting and important rally for our team. This year, it’s great to be going there with the manufacturers’ championship secured, and to have the chance to celebrate that with all the Japanese fans. The fight for the drivers’ title is also now incredibly tight between our guys. Elfyn has been doing a great job and has won Rally Japan the last two years, but we also know that Seb will be very motivated to bounce back after Central Europe and that Kalle is looking very quick on asphalt at the moment. I think it’s a rally that any of them could win and it’s going to be exciting for everyone to follow. Of course, it’s also a very special rally for Taka and we hope he too can perform well.”

Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “Rally Japan is always a big week as the home event for TGR and there’s a very special atmosphere. It’s not an easy rally with very demanding and twisty stages, and in the last few years we’ve seen some quite difficult conditions at times. Even when it’s dry, there’s very little margin for error and it’s easy to make a small but costly mistake. The first key is to get through without issue, and then it’s about having a good feeling with the car and maintaining concentration for all those corners. We’ve had some good runs there in the past and we’ll be aiming as high as we can again to try and secure a good result for the team at home and for ourselves for the championship.”

Kalle Rovanperä (driver car 69): “I always enjoy any trip to Japan, and the fans give this event a unique atmosphere, especially for us as Toyota drivers. The rally itself is a tricky one. There are a few wider and faster sections which are really enjoyable, and a lot of narrow and more technical roads which have maybe not suited me so well in the past. At the moment though I have a really good feeling with this car and tyre on asphalt, so let’s see what we can do this time. The championship is close and I hope that we can keep pushing hard and score another good result.”

Sébastien Ogier (driver car 17): “Rally Japan is always a special date in the calendar for us, and this year it should be even more interesting for everyone to follow given how close the drivers’ championship is with just two rounds to go. The stages on this rally are very demanding as they are narrow and technical without much room for error, and we’ve seen that the weather at this time of year can make things even more complicated. The last rally didn’t go our way, but we know we have the speed and the chance to fight, and we will be doing our best to achieve a top result in Japan for that and for all of the fans who are giving us such great support there.”

Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “Rally Japan is very special for me as my home rally and I’m really looking forward to driving there again in front of family and friends. It will be the fourth time that we’ve competed in the WRC event in Japan and, after being on the podium in 2022, I would definitely like to try to get back there this year. It’s never an easy rally with the narrow mountain roads, changing grip levels, and chance of difficult weather. I can take some confidence from the good stage times and result we had in Central Europe, and I will give everything to get the best result ever for myself, the team and the Japanese rally fans.”

Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “I’m really looking forward to my first Rally Japan as a Rally1 driver with Toyota. I have some good memories from last year when we won the WRC2 title there, and I could already feel the support of the Japanese fans then, so I’m sure that this year it might be on another level. I enjoy the stages in Japan: they are not so fast but you have to be really precise because they’re so narrow and twisty. We had good speed on some stages in Central Europe and hopefully we can continue that in Japan, where the road generally stays a bit cleaner for each car because there are fewer chances to cut the corners.”

ENDS