Toyota Gazoo Racing close the gap to maintain title challenge
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team closed the gap in the FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title race with a strong final day performance on the Central European Rally on Sunday, even though their crews missed out on overall victory.
Takamoto Katsuta was the star of the day in an excellent return to action, claiming the maximum 12 points on offer by topping both the Super Sunday classification and the rally-ending Power Stage.
Following a short break in his season as he sat out the previous round in Chile, Katsuta showed confidence and pace from the start of the all-asphalt event, while also driving smartly when the often slippery conditions required a more cautious approach. Pushing harder on Sunday, he was quickest on the first pass through the Passauer Land test and again when he returned for the Power Stage.
Finishing fourth overall, Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston were quickest across Sunday by 3.8 seconds ahead of team-mates Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, who scored a second successive podium in second place and were third in the Power Stage.
Together, the efforts of Evans and Katsuta meant TGR-WRT scored two points more than their main rival Hyundai, closing the gap to 15 points ahead of next month’s final round at Rally Japan – where a maximum score across the event would be enough to claim another title.
Evans had been part of a close battle for victory which was led by TGR’s Sébastien Ogier coming into the final day. While a wide moment meant he conceded the lead to Ott Tänak (Hyundai) in the first stage of the day, Ogier responded to reduce the gap to 1.5s with two stages to go. Continuing to push hard, he then slid wide on a muddy corner in SS17 and hit a tree, forcing him and navigator Vincent Landais to retire on the spot.
Sami Pajari and co-driver Enni Mälkönen suffered a similar fate in the first stage of the morning, bringing a slightly early end to another impressive outing in a GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid – his first on asphalt and third in total. Pajari was on for another top-six finish overall as he continued his learning process at the highest level, gaining more valuable experience. As planned, Pajari will return to driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car at Rally Japan where he has a chance to claim the WRC2 championship title if he can finish in the top two in the category.
The GR Yaris Rally2 car took second place on the WRC2 podium at the Central European Rally in the hands of Czech driver Filip Mareš and the Toyota Dolak team.
Team quotes
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “I’m happy with Elfyn and Takamoto’s strong results on this rally. They have really helped the team to keep the championship alive. Seb was naturally disappointed after his accident which was unfortunate because he was again very fast here. After that, it was looking like we might lose some points, but in the end thanks to Taka and Elfyn we gained two on our competition, so we are still in the game for Rally Japan: it’s in our hands if we aim for a one-two overall and full points on Sunday. We’re happy for Taka especially: with time to reset he came back and did exactly what we needed him to do. He was careful when he needed to be, increased the confidence and then his performance on Sunday was coming naturally. With Sami, his performance was growing all the time on asphalt. It was just a small mistake this morning and he paid a big penalty but that’s part of the learning process and the next goal for him is to fight for the WRC2 title in Japan.”
Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “It’s not been a bad weekend for us. Together with Scott we come away as the crew that scored the most points and we have to be satisfied with that and it’s good for the team. Maybe we were not always setting the stage times alight, but we had some strong moments and it was quite a consistent weekend. We were missing a little bit here and there but we’re here at the end in second place and we can be reasonably happy. In terms of manufacturers’ points we took a little hit today unfortunately but it wasn’t bad on that side so at least we’re still in the game and it’s all open for Rally Japan.”
Sébastien Ogier (driver car 17): “I feel really very sorry for the team for what happened today. In this penultimate stage the first corner going under the trees was much muddier than I anticipated and I just understeered wide and hit the tree on the outside. The route note crews didn’t have the chance to pass through this stage before us so I didn’t have the information in my notes, but this is no excuse because I’m behind the wheel and the other drivers didn’t make the same mistake. Right now, I feel very disappointed, especially for the team because it could have been a strong weekend for us. It’s been three rallies in a row where we clearly have the speed but not the result at the end. Thanks to Elfyn and Taka we still have a chance in the championship at Rally Japan and we will try our best again there.”
Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “I want to say a huge thanks to the team for the incredible support they gave me through some difficult moments in the last two months. It’s been a very tough season for me so I felt a lot of pressure to do a good job here, but we are able to do it with full points on Super Sunday and the Power Stage as well as fourth overall. I was really enjoying the driving and the feeling in the car, and I’m happy with this result. Of course, we have still one rally to go and I will try to do my best there together with the team. We never give up and we keep pushing.”
Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “In the first stage today I went a bit wide on one corner and we were maybe a bit unlucky to roll so easily, but it was my mistake. It’s a pity and I’m sorry for the team. I just need to learn from this, understand what happened and be better in the future. Up to then, the rally had been good for us, every day was really clean and there was clear development through the weekend. I felt good with the car, did some decent stage times and most importantly learned a lot. These three rallies in the Rally1 car have been amazing, a dream come true for me. Now I look forward to doing my best at Rally Japan in WRC2.”
Provisional final classification, Central European Rally
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) 2h37m34.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +7.0s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +39.8s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m21.0s
5 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +3m41.9s
6 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +9m17.6s
7 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m34.1s
8 Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +11m41.5s
9 Miko Marczyk/Szymon Gospodarczyk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +12m10.6s
10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +12m20.3s
Retired Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID)
Retired Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID)
(Results as of 17:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 12:
1 Thierry Neuville 225 points
2 Ott Tänak 200
3 Elfyn Evans 185
4 Sébastien Ogier 166
5 Adrien Fourmaux 146
6 Kalle Rovanperä 114
7 Takamoto Katsuta 102
8 Dani Sordo 44
9 Sami Pajari 41
10 Gregoire Munster 37
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 12:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 526 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 511
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 267
What’s next?
The season will conclude on home roads for TGR at Rally Japan on 21-24 November. The event, which returned to the WRC calendar in 2022, is held on demanding asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures, with a service park in Toyota City near Nagoya.
ENDS
