Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team are celebrating a maximum score on a challenging Rally Chile. Yesterday (29 September) Kalle Rovanperä claimed victory ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans.
In addition to the overall one-two, TGR-WRT also locked out the top three places in the separate Super Sunday classification and posted the fastest two times in the rally-ending Power Stage.
This makes them the first team to secure the maximum possible haul of 55 manufacturers’ points under the new system introduced for 2024. They are doing all they can to keep their championship ambitions alive, reducing the gap to the lead from 35 to 17 points with two rounds remaining.
Sunday’s final loop of four stages brought a continuation of the demanding conditions experienced on Saturday in the mountains of the Biobío region to the south of host city Concepción, where Rovanperä took the lead from Evans in heavy fog.
Sébastien Ogier was running first on the road, restarting the rally following damage to his car on Saturday morning. He seized the opportunity presented by the damp conditions to set the pace, winning every one of the last four stages.
Rovanperä had entered the final day 15.1 seconds ahead of Evans, an advantage that he extended during the morning’s first two tests. In a thrilling finish to the Power Stage, he was just 0.1 seconds slower than Ogier as he clinched his fourth win of the season along with co-driver Jonne Halttunen.
Rovanperä’s 15th win with TGR-WRT draws him level with fellow two-time champion Carlos Sainz as the drivers who have achieved the most FIA World Rally Championship victories for Toyota.
Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin made made the podium for the fifth time this season, having claimed the rally lead on Friday morning and holding it until they faced the worst of the fog on Saturday afternoon. They took third on Super Sunday and fifth on the Power Stage.
Both Ogier and Evans remain in mathematical contention for the drivers’ championship going into the last two rounds of the season with 60 points still up for grabs.
Sami Pajari and Enni Mälkönen finished in sixth position in their second event in a GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid. Building on their strong debut at Rally Finland, they made an impressive start on Friday, ending the day just 12.2 seconds from the lead in fourth place. When conditions then became more difficult, Pajari demonstrated a mature approach to focus on gaining valuable experience and cleanly reaching the finish.
Pajari will have a further chance to add to his Rally1 experience on the next event at the Central European Rally. He retains a chance of winning the WRC2 championship title at the season-ending event in Japan.
Team Quotes
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “This is a great result for our team. A perfect Sunday for the first time this season feels good, especially after the devastating blows we took on the final days of the past two events. Our drivers did a magnificent job today pushing until the end of the last stage. This result will boost the whole team and give them extra motivation for the two remaining events. Kalle and Elfyn both drove well the whole weekend and either would have deserved to win the rally. Seb posted quick times on every stage he ran and thanks to his speed and fighting spirit today, we take away very important points for the manufacturers’ championship. Lastly, Sami did exactly what we were looking for this weekend, driving consistently and bringing the car home with a mature performance, gaining more and more experience. So, all in all, it has been a positive rally for us.”
Kalle Rovanperä (driver car 69): “ It was a tough weekend and it always feels good when you’ve had to fight for a victory. It wasn’t easy at any point with the weather and everything, but we did a good job. On Friday I wasn’t feeling so comfortable, but we made it through with no big mistakes. When conditions became difficult we could make some big gaps. It was important to push today as well and together with our team-mates we scored important points for the manufacturers’ championship. A big thanks to the team: the car was really strong this weekend.”
Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “It’s been a good weekend more or less from the start to the end. We showed some good performance and it’s an amazing result for the team. I’m happy to be a part of that. The conditions didn’t go in our favour yesterday, but Kalle did well with the strategy and has driven well, so congratulations to him. Today we had more wet conditions and quite a bit of fog around too, but we managed to get through cleanly with no issues and still some decent speed. The result has really helped in the manufacturers’ championship, now we just need to focus on continuing in the same way until the end of the year.”
Sébastien Ogier (driver car 17): “It’s nice to finish the weekend on a positive note and help the team to bring the manufacturers’ championship back to life. I still feel a bit disappointed in myself and the costly mistakes we made on the previous days, because we had amazing speed and won most of the stages we finished. But that’s not enough in rallying: you need to put it all together and we didn’t do that this weekend. I had a lot of fun driving the car and I want to thank the team for all their efforts improving it, as it’s never felt so good on gravel. We are going in the right direction and we will keep on pushing up to Rally Japan.”
Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “It’s really nice to reach the finish of this rally. Thank you to the team, because it has been such a pleasure to drive this great car again. Friday was quite promising and we could show some pace. Then there was a lot of learning on the following two days with tricky conditions but that’s part of the game. To get safely through the whole rally was the main plan, so we need to be happy with that and at least we could show good pace on some of the stages. Now I can’t wait for Central European Rally which will be another new challenge with a lot to learn.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY CHILE
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h58m59.8s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +23.4s
3 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +43.9s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m01.1s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m02.7s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m39.7s
7 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m47.7s
8 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (Citroën C3 Rally2) +8m31.4s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroën C3 Rally2) +8m48.7s
10 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m52.1s
36 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1h27m03.1s
(Results as of 16:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 11:
1 Thierry Neuville 207 points
2 Ott Tänak 178
3 Sébastien Ogier 166
4 Elfyn Evans 161
5 Adrien Fourmaux 140
6 Kalle Rovanperä 114
7 Takamoto Katsuta 80
8 Dani Sordo 44
9 Sami Pajari 41
10 Esapekka Lappi 33
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 11:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 482 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 465
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 245
What’s next?
There’s a return to asphalt for the last two rounds of the season, beginning with the Central European Rally on 17-20 October. First held in 2023, this cross-border event takes place on demanding roads in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
ENDS
