Epic conclusion to WRC as Toyota also wins W2RC Morocco
It’s been a big week for Toyota Racing. Not only did Gazoo crew Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin wrap up an absolutely epic FIA World Rally Drivers and Navigators Championships to add to the team’s latest Maker’s crown as it dominated Rally Italia, but Toyota Hiluxes also dominated the Moroccan World Rally Raid Championship round.
Starting with the dramatic Rally Italia WRC finale in Sardinia, championship leaders Evans and Martin were comfortably heading to the title when they suffered a puncture to hand the title advantage to teammates Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson with just the final Power Stage to run on Sunday. All Solberg and Edmondson had left to do to take a fortuitous title, was win the Power Stage.
Which looked done and dusted. But the fat lady refused to sing as the leaders went off the road within sight of the finish. Which handed the stage win to Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen in another WRC Yaris to take the stage win and allow Evans and Martin to steal back the titles as Solberg and Edmondson lost the three vital championship points they needed to take it. So while the Swedes went on to dominantly win the rally, that Power Stage slip cost them the title.
Quintero’s Moroccan Masterpiece
Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais ended second in Italy driving yet another WRC Yaris as Pajari and Salminen made it a Toyota 1-2-3 from the Fourmaux Coria Hyundai and new champions, Evans and Martin’s Toyota in fifth. A former Welsh WRC star’s son Evans becomes the first British driver to win the WRC title since Richard Burns in 2001. He beat former WRC Champion Petter’s son Solberg, with Pajari just a single point further adrift.
Moving across to Morocco, consistent Californian Seth Quintero and Andrew Short took their second win of the year ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates, Portuguese crew João Ferreira and Filipe Palmeiro and South Africans Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings. The Hiluxes outpaced Ford Raptor trio, Nani Roma, Mitch Guthrie and Carlos Sainz en route to the first all-Toyota W2RC podium in three years, to haul Dacia in, in the manufacturers' championship.
His double win leaves Quintero now leading the driver’s log from Dacia man Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al Attiyah after a race to forget for the Romanian brand. Ferreira and Lategan remain in mathematical title contention. Stéphane Peterhansel’s Defender won the Stock class, while calss newcomer Yasir Seaidan scored a debut podium in a factory Toyota Land Cruiser.
