Toyota Gazoo Racing claim seventh World Rally manufacturers’ title
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team have successfully retained their crown as manufacturers’ champions and are guaranteed another clean sweep of FIA World Rally Championship titles in 2023 after an exciting finale to Rally Chile on Sunday.
Elfyn Evans finished third, just ahead of team-mates Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta. These results, together with Rovanperä and Evans achieving a one-two on the rally-ending Power Stage to claim the maximum available bonus points, were enough to secure the manufacturers’ title with two rounds still to go (subject to official confirmation). It is the fourth time, and third year in a row, that TGR-WRT have won the title since the team were formed. It is Toyota’s seventh manufacturers’ crown since 1993.
TGR-WRT are also now guaranteed to have their fifth consecutive drivers’ and co-drivers’ champions. The efforts of Rovanperä and Evans on the Power Stage ensured that only they and their respective navigators Jonne Halttunen and Scott Martin can win this year’s titles. Rovanperä and Halttunen lead Evans and Martin by 31 points with 60 available from the last two events.
The return to Chile for the first time since 2019 was far from straightforward, presenting teams and drivers not only with a large number of new roads but also some rather different conditions, with the event taking place in spring rather than autumn.
Evans was in the mix for the rally win before he and his team-mates suffered unexpectedly high tyre wear on extremely abrasive stages on Saturday. He continued to push for a podium place and was rewarded when another driver ahead was caught out by the tricky roads in Sunday’s penultimate test.
As points leader, Rovanperä had lost more time on Friday after having to run first on roads that were far drier and looser than four years ago. But he would bounce back on the day of his 23rd birthday with his sixth Power Stage win of the season, which meant he only conceded two points of his pre-event advantage over Evans.
Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston – who have contributed to the manufacturers’ title success after stepping up into the main TGR-WRT line-up this year to share a car with Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais – ensured that all three of the team’s cars finished in the top five at the end of a demanding weekend.
Team quotes
Akio Toyoda (Chairman, Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team)
“To all the team members of TGR-WRT, congratulations on winning the manufacturers’ title.
This year Elfyn was the driving force behind the manufacturers’ title with six podiums including two wins out of 11 events so far. Elfyn and Scott, thank you for getting the third place, which became the deciding factor to conclude the title. And Kalle and Jonne’s three victories were of course a big help as well. I hope both Elfyn and Kalle will drive without regrets for the remaining two rallies, in Central Europe and Japan. I am confident that the team will prepare the best cars, so I expect you two will give it your all.
“As a team, we secured the title one round earlier than last year. I think it says that the team has become even stronger. I would like to thank Jari-Matti from the bottom of my heart for continuing to work with everybody to make the team stronger after already winning the manufacturers’ title in his first year as the Team Principal. I am really looking forward to seeing everybody in Japan.”
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “I’m really happy with how this rally ended for us. Saturday was a really demanding day, and on Sunday morning we thought it would be difficult to get on the podium. But it shows that in rallying you just have to be patient and keep going until the end, because it can always bring surprises. I’m really proud of the team and crews for all the work we’ve done during the season. Two rounds before the end of the season is the earliest we’ve ever won the manufacturers’ title as TGR-WRT. The competition is hard and the cars are close, but I think we have made the difference with our reliability and bringing the cars home without problems, as we did here. Now we are excited to see which of our two crews fighting for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ title will succeed over the last two rounds.”
Kalle Rovanperä (driver car 69): “It feels good to have helped the team secure the manufacturers’ title. To confirm it here in Chile with two rounds to go is a great achievement. This was not the easiest weekend for us, as we were a bit handicapped by our starting position on Friday and didn’t make the best decisions on Saturday. Today it was still tricky with quite a lot of road cleaning even on the second pass. But we had a good plan to save the tyres and push hard on the Power Stage. The quick time came, showing we had the speed, and it was good to get those points.”
Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “Overall, the weekend was perhaps not what we hoped for and I think there was potential for more. We didn’t quite get it all right this time around even though we had some good speed at times. But I think we can be relatively happy with our podium. The best news is that the team has clinched the manufacturers’ title. It’s an honour to be a part of the team and it’s great to reward everybody for all their hard work. In the drivers’ championship we probably needed to close a bit more on Kalle this weekend than we did, but at least the fight is still alive.”
Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “It has been a very demanding weekend but I want to say a big congratulations to everyone in the team for winning the manufacturers’ title. There are so many people doing such great work during the season: a huge thanks to all of them because we are always happy to drive such a strong and fast car. The stages here in Chile were nice but very difficult. I felt quite good on Friday afternoon but then on Saturday we were struggling a lot with the aggressive surface. It wasn’t easy but we got an idea of how to improve for the future, so it was good experience.”
Provisional final classification, Rally Chile
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) 3h06m38.1s
2 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +42.1s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m06.9s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m11.0s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +4m41.5s
6 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m18.5s
7 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m44.3s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m20.6s
9 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +9m53.9s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10m08.2s
(Results as of 14:20 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
The penultimate round of the season on 26-29 October is a brand-new event for the WRC: the Central European Rally, taking place on demanding asphalt roads in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
ENDS
