This marks Toyota’s fourth consecutive title and the seventh in the brand’s rallying history. However, this time the victory required extraordinary effort. The championship was decided only on the final stage of the season-ending Rally Japan, where Sebastien Ogier won the Power Stage, with Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta securing third and fourth places.
“I said everything goes to the final stage in this championship and it did. I’m still nervous because it’s horrible to watch. My feeling was all the time that our drivers, if they go off the road, it’s terrible to watch.” Latvala admitted at the end of Toyota’s home rally and celebrations.
“I can tell you it’s been most terrible situation in my career to watch that stage, but it’s a massive relief.”
Toyota’s championship hopes were reignited when Hyundai’s Ott Tänak crashed out on Sunday morning. But Toyota itself has had its share of “black Sundays” this season.
“We have had such a rollercoaster season and I think coming here, we thought that we don’t even have strong possibilities to win the title. But we said the guys, we fight until the last metre of the rally and let’s see what happens,” Latvala said.
“Actually that fight kept on and that’s why we managed to get the manufacturers championship title. We have had three Black Sundays, crashing on the final day of the rally and losing the points has been so devastating”
Perhaps the most crushing disappointment occurred in Greece in September, when Sebastien Ogier crashed but managed to limp to the finish. At that point, Latvala had almost given up hope.
“But then we came back in Chile and we got again some disappointments in Central European Rally but once again we managed to bounce back. So it’s like a never ending fight,” Latvala summarised.
“You need to keep fighting always until the last metre. You should never, never lose the fight.”
