TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR WRT) closed the 2022 World Rally Championship (WRC) event by competing vigorously at home in Japan.
Rally Japan's return to the WRC calendar for the first time since 2010 was very challenging for the teams, drivers and co-drivers.
A completely new track is held on the rough and winding asphalt road in the mountains of Aichi and Gifu prefectures.
The GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID has been strong from the start and is confident of winning 11 of the 16 stages over the weekend.
Unfortunately, a few minor incidents on difficult roads proved to be time-consuming repairs and ultimately ended TGR's winning chances.
Elfyn Evans put in one of his strongest performances of the season to battle for victory until the final day, who started four seconds down into the fifth stage for a total distance of 69.82km.
In the first stage of the day, he closed the gap to just 0.6 seconds with a fourth stage win of the weekend alongside co-driver Scott Martin.
However, at the following stage they had to stop and change wheels and tires after going wide on the downhill right-hand corner, dropping both to fourth overall.
This misfortune for Evans saw Takamoto Katsuta move up to third in his home rally in the TGR WRT Next Generation entry.
Torrential rain hit the final two stages of the rally, but Katsuta safely weathered the treacherous conditions for a special podium finish, his second of the season alongside co-driver Aaron Johnston.
Sébastien Ogier showed great pace all weekend with his new co-driver Vincent Landais, and might have won had the pair not lost so much to 2 minutes in Friday's first stage that they had to stop and change tires.
Fastest of all the races on Saturday and Sunday, Ogier came back from last place to finish fourth overall ahead of Evans, just 2 minutes 24 seconds off the first winner and took victory on all five stages throughout the race.
After breaking the record as the youngest ever WRC champion, Kalle Rovanperä was also fighting for victory until Saturday morning when he slid wide into a corner and made contact with a wall, forcing him and co-driver Jonne Halttunen to also stop and change wheels.
After losing significant time, they ran the rest of the rally as a valuable opportunity to test different car setups to get a feel for the track characteristics of the Japan Rally.
