Toyota GAZOO Racing scored another victory in the Monza Rally, the final leg of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship.
In Monza, also called the Speed Cathedral, Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia won the seventh World Championship of their career, taking first place with the Toyota Yaris WRC. Having achieved success with the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team in its first season, Ogier became the fifth different driver to win the WRC championship with Toyota in 30 years. Ogier thus managed to reclaim the championship crown from 2019 winner Ott Tänak. Thus, Ogier joined Carlos Sainz (1990 and 1992), Juha Kankkunen (1993), Didier Auriol (1994) and Ott Tanak (2019), who won the Drivers' Championship at Toyota.
Breathtaking challenge from Toyota pilots
Ogier fought head-to-head with his teammate Elfyn Evans in the Pilots' Championship until the last moment at the World Rally Championship, which was held on an unprecedented schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. The historical Italian automobile race track, which has different road conditions and stands out with challenging stages, became much more challenging with the rain on Friday. Winter conditions pushed drivers and cars to the fullest during the stages held on the mountain roads around Monza on Saturday.
Taking the lead since Saturday morning, Ogier managed to finish the race 13.9 seconds ahead of his closest rival. Tommi Mäkinen, who won the producers' trophy by joining Ogier and Ingrassia on the podium overlooking the pit plain, participated in his last race as Team Captain and will continue to work as the Motorsports Consultant at Toyota from January 2021.
Top Two Places Toyota GAZOO Racing
With these results, Toyota finished first with Sebastien Ogier / Ingrassia and second with Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin in the 2020 Drivers' Championship. However, the young driver Kalle Rovanperä and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen, who made an impressive season, finished the championship in fifth place, finishing in the top five six times in their first season in the WRC. Toyota completed the Brands Championship in second place with a 6 points margin, close to the top. Toyota, which won 5 of the 2020 races of the 7 WRC calendar, demonstrated another successful season.
Takamoto Katsuta, who is in the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program, completed the five-race schedule with the Yaris WRC and made his claim by making the fastest lap of the WRC at the end of the race at Monza. Team Captain Tommi Mäkinen stated that he was very happy with Toyota taking the first two places in the Drivers' Championship and said, “I congratulate all of our pilots for their wonderful work. It's great that Ogier took his seventh championship in our car and Evans delivered the performance we expected throughout the season. The team did a very good work and I am confident that it will continue this success ”.
Sébastien Ogier, who won the XNUMXth Drivers' Championship in his career, stated that he had a difficult but wonderful weekend, “We knew that all we had to do was win when we came to Monza. We strained throughout the race and tried not to make mistakes. "The seventh championship is a great success and I couldn't have done it without the team's effort."
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