TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has won a fifth consecutive FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title* at the Central European Rally, where Kalle Rovanperä claimed a valuable victory in the battle for the drivers’ crown.
Elfyn Evans completed a one-two finish by taking second overall on the final stage as he reclaimed the lead of the drivers’ championship – and the Welshman crossing the finish line was enough for the manufacturers’ crown to be secured with two rounds still remaining.
It is the ninth WRC manufacturers’ title won in total by Toyota – just one fewer than the record set by Lancia.
Rovanperä’s victory together with co-driver Jonne Halttunen is the 11th victory from 12 rounds so far this season for the GR YARIS Rally1 car.
The Finnish duo were embroiled in an incredibly close fight for the lead with team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais through the first half of the event, which took place over demanding and varied asphalt roads across Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
Rovanperä took the lead on Saturday morning’s first stage before Ogier would then hit trouble in the following test, sliding wide into a tree after he lost pressure in his front-left tyre.
From there, Rovanperä carefully controlled his advantage, ultimately taking victory by 43.7 seconds.
Evans was similarly involved in a close battle with another championship contender – Ott Tänak (Hyundai) – and this one went down to the wire. Evans and co-driver Scott Martin – starting his 200th WRC event – began the final day 8.4 seconds away from Tänak but closed to within 1.1s before the final stage, where they went 6.7s quicker than their rivals.
Also finishing second in the Power Stage and Super Sunday classifications, Evans now leads the drivers’ standings by 13 points ahead of his two team-mates Rovanperä and Ogier and 50 over Tänak.
Ogier was able to restart on Sunday and was quickest in every stage as he claimed the full 10 points available across Super Sunday and the Power Stage. Rovanperä ended up third in Super Sunday and the Power Stage.
Takamoto Katsuta finished fourth overall and in Super Sunday and the Power Stage, showing strong pace ahead of his upcoming home rally in Japan with two stage wins on Saturday alongside co-driver Aaron Johnston. Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen also set some strong stage times as they finished sixth overall.
Crowned WRC2 champions on the previous event in Chile, Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson once more finished as the leading Rally2 car in their Printsport-run GR Yaris in eighth overall.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“To everyone in TGR-WRT, thank you for achieving the manufacturers’ title for five consecutive years!
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Juha, who has supported the team as the deputy team principal, as well as to the drivers, co-drivers, engineers, mechanics, all the other team members, and of course, the fans. Thank you so much!
Including the time when Juha was driving the Celica, this marks our ninth title overall. However, we still haven’t reached Lancia’s records of 10 manufacturers’ titles and six consecutive championships. I saw a post saying that Lancia will return to WRC2 from next year, so I am very excited at the thought of rallying together with the Lancia team. And I imagine that Juha, who has driven a Lancia before, is probably even more excited than I am.
There are two events left this season and next up is the much-anticipated Rally Japan. My feelings toward Rally Japan have not changed since last time. Elfyn, who is pursuing his long-cherished goal of winning a title; Seb, who is aiming for the title despite his part-season programme; and Kalle, who wants to finish his final WRC season as a champion... I just want all of them to enjoy driving to the fullest and I believe in and rely on everyone in the team to create an environment where the drivers can drive comfortably and have fun driving.”
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“I am really proud of my team today. I must admit that there were a few little tears in my eyes at the finish line, knowing that we were first and second in the rally and that we had won the manufacturers’ championship again. For me in this role it has been the most important thing to achieve this year. I won titles as a driver and to now win this one as a team principal, I consider it like a fifth world championship. The spirit and atmosphere inside the team has been so good this year, and our drivers have done a brilliant job. It’s very close between Elfyn, Seb and Kalle in the standings now and it’s going to be a very exciting last two rounds.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“I’m overjoyed for this team winning the manufacturers’ championship once again. There’s a massive effort behind this and everybody is working very hard to deliver us the best car and give us the best chances, so I have to say a huge thank you and well done. For me it maybe wasn’t quite the weekend we really hoped for. I think we should have had the potential to do more, so I’m a bit frustrated. It was important to turn things around a bit today and it was a much better day. We managed to grab the second place back from Ott, so I’m happy with how things turned out.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Huge congratulations to the whole team, including everybody in the workshop and here in the service park. To win the manufacturers’ championship again proves that we are the best team. Everyone is working super well together, so thank you. It has been a really good weekend for us. It was nice to be back on asphalt and the pace that we had was pretty fast, so we have done a great job together with the team. The drivers’ championship still won’t be easy but we have at least increased our chances with this result and we will try to continue like this on the next rally in Japan.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It feels fantastic to win another manufacturers’ title with this team. It’s never easy to keep improving and keep winning but that’s the spirit that this whole team has and I’m very proud of that. We need to celebrate it because nothing ever comes easy, and we will keep pushing and try to continue this success. The car was perfect today, so thank you to the team for fixing it and giving us the tools to recover the maximum points that we could after the incident yesterday. Of course, we would have preferred to come away from this rally with a better result but we still have a real possibility to fight for the title and we can look forward to the next event in Japan.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s fantastic that we won the manufacturers’ title again this year. A huge thanks to everybody in the team, they are working so hard, and my team-mates who have done a great job also. For me it has been nice to have a good drive like this here in Central Europe and get a good feeling with the car and the tyres before Rally Japan. I can’t be fully happy and there are still some areas I need to improve, but I will keep working and pushing as much as I can for Rally Japan, which is very important to me.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“A big thank you and congratulations to the team on winning the manufacturers’ championship. It has been quite an OK weekend on my side. I think we had some really good stage times during the weekend. There was also quite a bit of learning still, especially when the conditions were more tricky, but that’s a part of the game for us this season. Overall, I think there are a lot of positive things we can take away from this event, looking towards the next one in Japan and also for the future.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, CENTRAL EUROPEAN RALLY
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h36m20.1s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +43.7s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +49.3s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m06.8s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m04.6s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m13.9s
7 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +5m48.8s
8 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +8m56.2s
9 Jan Černý/Ondřej Krajča (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10m51.1s
10 Filip Mareš/Radovan Bucha (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +11m21.2s
29 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +49m40.9s
(Results as of 17:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 12:
1 Elfyn Evans 247 points
2 Sébastien Ogier 234
3 Kalle Rovanperä 234
4 Ott Tänak 197
5 Thierry Neuville 166
6 Takamoto Katsuta 110
7 Adrien Fourmaux 96
8 Sami Pajari 79
9 Oliver Solberg 64
10 Grégoire Munster 26
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 12:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 632 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 464
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 176
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 127
What's next?
The penultimate round of the season takes place on home ground for TGR at Rally Japan on November 6-9. The event takes place on twisting asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures, around the service park in Toyota City near Nagoya.
*subject to the official publication of the results by the FIA
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