In the final stages of the Central European Rally, it looked like Toyota would make a strong comeback in the manufacturers’ championship fight, but things turned out differently.
Sebastien Ogier crashed heavily at the start of the penultimate stage and had to retire. As a result, Ogier and Toyota also lost the conditional championship points they had secured on Saturday. Sunday’s bad luck and mistakes have become all too familiar for Toyota this season.
“Black Sunday has come quite a few times this year. When you think about it, first it was Jyväskylä, then Greece, and now on top of that, Germany. It’s been a tough place for us,” Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala lamented.
Ogier has now made major mistakes in three consecutive rallies, but Takamoto Katsuta, making a strong comeback from the “bench,” and Elfyn Evans at least delivered a solid Sunday to salvage the situation. Katsuta was the fastest man of the entire Super Sunday.
“Luckily, the boys were able to save us a little. A strong performance from Takamoto and also from Elfyn on Sunday. On the team side, we gained two points on Hyundai, but the drivers’ championships are now gone. That became clear today,” Latvala stated.
Indeed, the drivers’ championships have slipped away. Sunday confirmed that a Hyundai driver will celebrate the world championship at the end of the season. Either Thierry Neuville or Ott Tänak will enjoy their title celebrations in Japan. Toyota’s champion drivers, Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä, have not managed to bring in enough team points. Ogier has made an unusually high number of mistakes, and Rovanperä has also gone off the road a few times this season. Rovanperä couldn’t help the crash in Jyväskylä, but over the course of the season, the Finn has also made clear mistakes.
“That’s the cold, hard truth, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Latvala admitted.
“They’ve driven fast, but then mistakes have also come. Maybe Ogier has been pushing a bit too much towards the end of the season. If you look at the whole year, the speed has been extremely high. But when you’re not driving the full championship, it’s a bit of a different situation. For those who are doing the full season, the focus on the series and the points is a bigger factor than if you’re not competing full-time. In that case, there’s not as much to lose. Then you can take more risks, and maybe that’s where we’ve stumbled a bit,” Latvala observed.
Toyota has dominated the WRC in recent years quite comprehensively, but that streak is now about to end. According to Latvala, there are several different reasons for the loss.
“This has been quite an unusual season. The previous three years have been very progressive and steady for us. Now, we’ve had quite a few ups and downs in one year, and we’ve experienced many dramatic moments. We didn’t have that in previous years,” Latvala reflected.
“Maybe it also stems from the fact that this new points system has brought a lot of pressure and effort. That’s one factor. Another factor might be that we haven’t been running three drivers for the full season. Instead, we’ve done it with two, and then the third car has been driven by Ogier and Kalle. Perhaps a certain kind of stability and calmness has been missing. That was something we knew going into this season,” Latvala continued.
