Toyota Gazoo Racing dominated their most important rally of the season, FORUM8 Rally Japan, sweeping up the top four positions and the top five in Super Sunday and the Wolf Power Stage. It was a fitting farewell for the dominant GR Yaris Rally1 in tarmac specification.
Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin drove a steady six stages on Sunday, shedding a few seconds of their lead on the way to their second victory of the season, which extends their championship lead to 20 points.
“What a great weekend. Huge thanks to the team. Amazing car again on tarmac. (Points buffer?) Not sure. Long way to go and too early to talk about that. We have to just enjoy this one.”
Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais took second place with Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen claiming their fifth podium of the season.
Ogier rued Friday’s first run through Isegami’s Tunnel, where he dropped 16.7 seconds to Evans: “I know the reason, but that’s the way it is. Didn’t manage it this weekend. Not a bad rally either. The gap to Elfyn was made in one stage with the road position. The rest was, even with the struggle, not far away.”
Pajari was delighted to be back on the podium: “Feeling is good, obviously. Nice to be back on the podium. Shame about Portugal, it was going well. Solid days from us this weekend. It’s a shame that this was the last tarmac rally with these cars. I hope there are more good things come in the future. Thank you to everyone.”
Takamoto Katsuta put his Friday disappointment behind him and guided by co-driver Aaron Johnston, took fourth position after winning SS16 on their way to second in the Super Sunday standings. The ever-popular Japanese star said: “Sorry for the Japanese fans. We are not able to even take a podium. My dream continues. I keep pushing. Thank you to the team for preparing this car on tarmac. Special thanks to the whole Japanese fans. I’ll try next year, get a victory for you.”
Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson re-entered the rally and won three stages on their way to winning Super Sunday as well as the Wolf Power Stage, rescuing ten points from their weekend.
Ogier, Evans and Pajari completed the Sunday standings.
The WRC2 fight went down to the wire, with Alejandro Cachon declaring he was chasing victory in the final stage. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he had a spin and clipped a tree, leaving Nikolay Gryazin to win for Lancia.
“I was still pushing, I didn’t know. Good feeling – finally. When you have the fight from the beginning and something happens then it’s calm. But when you have to push every day, it’s a different emotion,” said the delighted class winner.
Toyota’s development driver Yuki Yamamoto took his maiden WRC2 podium.
Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.
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