TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has claimed a home 1-2-3 finish at Rally Japan with Sébastien Ogier edging out Elfyn Evans in a wet finale to take victory and set up a last-round showdown for the drivers’ championship.
Sami Pajari finished third overall to complete the team’s podium lockout and secure his maiden WRC podium finish in his first full season competing at the highest level.
It is the team’s third successive Rally Japan win from four editions (and the second 1-2-3 finish) and a first for Ogier and his co-driver Vincent Landais, who were locked in a close battle with Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin with under 10 seconds separating the pair for most of the weekend.
Ogier took a lead of 6.5s into the final day, which was held in challenging wet conditions. Evans made the faster start to the morning’s first stage and looked set to take the lead, only for Ogier to recover in a particularly tricky final section. Ogier then won the next stage and another fastest time in the penultimate test meant he led by 11.5s going into the final stage.
In a thrilling finish, Ogier and Evans were separated by just 0.096s in the rally-ending Power Stage. Also topping the Super Sunday classification, Ogier therefore secured the maximum 35 points and closes to within three points of championship leader Evans with one rally remaining.
Kalle Rovanperä and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen also remain in contention, 24 points from the lead, in what is now an all-TGR fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles. They recovered to finish sixth overall after losing five minutes following contact with a barrier in Friday’s second stage, and took third on Super Sunday and the Power Stage.
Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen picked up third place after Sunday’s first stage caught out Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux. On his first time competing in Japan in Rally1 machinery, Pajari was rewarded for another solid and mature drive that exemplifies his rookie campaign.
Takamoto Katsuta was fully a part of the fight for victory with Ogier and Evans on his home rally until he picked up damage after hitting a barrier in SS11 on Saturday afternoon. Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston returned to show more strong pace on Sunday, including a pair of stage wins in the Okazaki super special.
This year’s WRC2 champion Oliver Solberg once more finished at the head of the Rally2 category in his Printsport-run GR Yaris in seventh overall, one place in front of Alejandro Cachón who claimed his maiden WRC2 victory, entered by Toyota Spain and run by Teo Martín Motorsport.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“Akio Toyoda, who has continuously spoken about ‘Japan Pride’ in various places, was finally able to return as Morizo on Thursday. Upon the team’s arrival in Aichi, I went to see everyone to say ‘Welcome back to your home rally!’ But instead, Morizo was greeted by them saying ‘Welcome back to the home team!’
It reminded me that TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT is a team with such ‘warm companions’ and it made me feel very happy and instantly blew away all my fatigue. It was a weekend to once again feel grateful to be fighting alongside the best team-mates. I also want to express my sincere thanks for the team to return to Japan after securing the manufacturers’ title for the fifth consecutive year.
This time, it was a 1-2-3 finish by Seb, Elfyn, and Sami! Although Kalle and Takamoto faced frustrating troubles, they kept running until the last day. Above all, we are very happy that five cars made it to the finish on Japanese roads. Thank you all.
Takamoto's trouble was also a pain to me. Even without power steering, he kept his fighting spirit alive. He said that the driving force that kept him going was the fans who kept supporting him along the roadside. And of course, the great support from Aaron and the mechanics who fixed the car was a huge help as well.
During the weekend, I was able to see many fans on the liaison sections. Rally Japan in Aichi and Gifu has now been held four times, and it seems this kind of roadside scenery has become established. We are gradually getting closer to the ‘European motorsport culture’ that I have always admired. I am truly happy. I want to thank everyone who planned Rally Japan and has continued it up to this point.
Elfyn, Scott, Seb, Vincent, Kalle, Jonne... this is the last season where these six can compete in such a high-level and exciting battle. Please give your best performance in Saudi Arabia with no regrets!
P.S.
Congratulations to Jari-Matti for becoming the historic rally champion! I hope to see you too soon and celebrate these championship titles together!
P.P.S.
Congratulations to Kamui, Mike, and Nyck for the victory in Bahrain! You also finished one-two with Car No. 8! Jose also won in GT3! Thank you for continuing to fight without giving up!”
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“This is another amazing result for us, to have a 1-2-3 finish once again in Japan. The battle between Seb and Elfyn was incredible to watch right until the last stage, and now there are only three points between them. Kalle has dropped away a little bit now, but he still has a chance and the final rally in Saudi Arabia will be interesting to see who will be the world champion. It is also fantastic to have Sami finish on the podium for the first time. He has been doing a great job so it’s really well deserved.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a fun and strong weekend overall and another great result for the team at home in Japan. It wasn’t easy today to be in such a big fight in those difficult conditions. We gave it our best shot but Seb was driving very well and was too tough to beat today. It was so close between the two of us, especially in the Power Stage, and it feels like we’ve missed out on quite a few points, but that’s the name of the game and everything is still to play for going into the final rally.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a tricky weekend overall for us and today conditions got really difficult with a lot of rain and standing water. We tried what we could to get some extra points from Sunday, but it’s not been the weekend or the result that we wanted to have. We’ve just been a bit too inconsistent this year, but we still have the chance to go for it one more time on the final round and we will try to make that a good one and see what happens.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“This is the perfect result for us and I’m very happy to win this rally in Japan at home for Toyota. It’s been an intense weekend, especially this last day with very challenging conditions. A big congratulations to the team for giving us a great car again to fight like this, because today we started a completely different rally with a completely different setup and it worked straight away. Elfyn was pushing me the whole weekend, and great wins only happen when you have great opponents.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Thank you to the team and the fans for their great support in my home rally. I couldn’t get a good result in the end and I’m sorry for that, but I saw so much support this week and I really appreciate it. Thanks to the team for fixing the car; today I tried my best to drive for the fans. I felt good confidence and pace, but in the Power Stage there was a lot of standing water and it didn’t work out well. I can see that it’s possible to get a good result here in the future and I will keep trying.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“This result feels really, really nice. It’s always special to take the first podium, and to do it in Japan and get a 1-2-3 for Toyota at home makes this even more special. There were super tricky conditions today but we had good pace on the first two days, and today we had some margin that meant we could just make sure that we finish. It’s been a really good event and we must be really pleased with this. It’s been a super job by all the team and it shows we are going forwards in a good way.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY JAPAN
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h21m08.9s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +11.6s
3 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m16.6s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3m18.1s
5 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +6m48.7s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +7m01.5s
7 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m35.5s
8 Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +10m41.6s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +11m36.2s
10 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +12m26.0s
17 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +40m24.6s
(Results as of 15:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 13:
1 Elfyn Evans 272 points
2 Sébastien Ogier 269
3 Kalle Rovanperä 248
4 Ott Tänak 213
5 Thierry Neuville 166
6 Takamoto Katsuta 111
7 Adrien Fourmaux 96
8 Sami Pajari 94
9 Oliver Solberg 70
10 Grégoire Munster 36
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 13:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 692 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 464
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 191
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 145
What's next?
Rally Saudi Arabia, a brand-new gravel event, joins the WRC as the final round of the season on November 26-29. The event will be based in Jeddah and take in a mix of mountain, volcano and desert terrain.
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