
In addition to its overall one-two, TGR-WRT also locked out the top three places in the separate Super Sunday classification and posted the fastest two times in the rally-ending Power Stage.
It therefore becomes the first team to secure the maximum possible haul of 55 manufacturersβ points under the new system introduced for 2024 β doing all it can to maintain its championship ambitions with two rounds remaining and reducing the gap to the lead from 35 to 17 points.
Sundayβs final loop of four stages brought a continuation of the demanding conditions experienced on Saturday in the mountains of the BiobΓo region to the south of host city ConcepciΓ³n, when RovanperΓ€ took the lead from Evans in heavy fog.
Running first on the road as he restarted following damage on Saturday morning, SΓ©bastien Ogier seized the opportunity presented by the damp conditions to set the pace on the final day, winning every one of the last four stages together with co-driver Vincent Landais.
RovanperΓ€ had entered the final day with a lead of 15.1 seconds over Evans that he extended during the morningβs first two tests. In a thrilling finish to the Power Stage, he was just 0.1s slower than Ogier as he clinched his fourth win of the season along with co-driver Jonne Halttunen.
RovanperΓ€βs 15th win together with TGR-WRT draws him level with fellow two-time champion Carlos Sainz as the drivers who have achieved the most FIA World Rally Championship victories for Toyota.
Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin made a strong return to the podium for the fifth time this season, having claimed the rally lead on Friday morning and held it until they faced the worst of the fog on Saturday afternoon. They took third on Super Sunday and fifth on the Power Stage.
Both Ogier and Evans remain in mathematical contention for the driversβ championship going into the last two rounds of the season with 60 points still up for grabs.
Sami Pajari and Enni MΓ€lkΓΆnen finished in sixth position in their second event in a GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID. Building on their strong debut at Rally Finland, they made an impressive start on Friday, ending the day just 12.2s from the lead in fourth place. When conditions then became more difficult, Pajari demonstrated a mature approach to focus on gaining valuable experience and cleanly reaching the finish.
Pajari will have a further chance to add to his Rally1 experience on the next event at the Central European Rally, and retains a chance of winning the WRC2 championship title at the season-ending event in Japan.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
βKalle, Jonne, congratulations on your victory!
Elfyn, Scott, thank you for the one-two finish!
Seb, Vincent, thank you for winning the Power Stage!
To the whole team, thank you for achieving the maximum points of 55 in one event! You all are great! It has been tough for everybody after the difficult results in Finland and Greece. I’m very happy to see the hard work of everyone who continued to improve without giving up pay off! Let’s enjoy the final stages of the season from the position of chasing! I’m really looking forward to Rally Japan!β
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
βThis is a great result for our team. A perfect Sunday for the first time this season feels really good, especially after the devastating blows we felt on the final days of the past two events. Our drivers did a magnificent job today pushing until the end of the last stage. This result will boost the whole team and give them extra motivation for the two remaining events. Kalle and Elfyn both drove really well the whole weekend and either would have deserved to win the rally. Seb did really quick times on every stage he did and thanks to his speed and his fighting spirit today, we take away really important points for the manufacturersβ championship. Lastly, Sami did exactly what we were looking for this weekend, driving consistently and bringing the car home with a really mature performance, gaining more and more experience. So, all in all, it has been a really positive rally for us.β
Kalle RovanperΓ€ (Driver car 69)
βThis win feels really good for us. It was a tough weekend and it always feels good when youβve really had to fight for a victory. It wasnβt easy at any point with all of the weather and everything, but we did a good job. On Friday I wasnβt feeling so comfortable, but we made it through without any big mistakes and when conditions became difficult we could make some big gaps. It was important to push today as well and together with our team-mates we scored really important points for the manufacturersβ championship and we can be very happy with that. A big thanks to the team: the car was really strong this weekend.β
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
βItβs been a good weekend more or less from the start to the end. We showed some good performance and itβs an amazing result for the team and Iβm happy to be a part of that. The conditions didnβt go in our favour yesterday but Kalle did well with the strategy and has driven really well, so congratulations to him. Today we had more wet conditions and quite a bit of fog around too, but we managed to get through cleanly with no issues and still some decent speed. The result has really helped in the manufacturersβ championship and we just need to focus on continuing in the same way now until the end of the year.β
SΓ©bastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
βItβs nice to finish the weekend on a positive note and really help the team today to bring the manufacturersβ championship back alive. I still feel a bit disappointed with myself and the mistakes we made on the previous days which were very costly, because we had amazing speed and won most of the stages we finished. But thatβs not enough in rallying: you need to put it all together and we didnβt do that this weekend. I had a lot of fun driving the car and I want to thank the team for all their efforts improving the car, as itβs never felt so good on gravel. We are going in the right direction and we will keep on pushing up to Rally Japan.β
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
βItβs really nice to reach the finish of this rally. Thank you to the team, because it has been such a pleasure to drive this great car again. Friday was quite promising for us and we could show some pace. Then there was a lot of learning on the following two days with tricky conditions but thatβs part of the game. To get safely through the whole rally was the main plan, so we need to be happy with that and at least we could show good pace on some of the stages. Now I canβt wait for Central European Rally which will be another new challenge with a lot to learn.β
End of day two (Sunday):
1 Kalle RovanperΓ€/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 2h58m59.8s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +23.4s
3 Ott TΓ€nak/Martin JΓ€rveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +43.9s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m01.1s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m02.7s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni MΓ€lkΓΆnen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m39.7s
7 GrΓ©goire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +2m47.7s
8 Yohan Rossel/Florian Barral (CitroΓ«n C3 Rally2) +8m31.4s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (CitroΓ«n C3 Rally2) +8m48.7s
10 Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Ε koda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m52.1s
36 SΓ©bastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1h27m03.1s
(Results as of 16:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 11:
1 Thierry Neuville 207 points
2 Ott TΓ€nak 178
3 SΓ©bastien Ogier 166
4 Elfyn Evans 161
5 Adrien Fourmaux 140
6 Kalle RovanperΓ€ 114
7 Takamoto Katsuta 80
8 Dani Sordo 44
9 Sami Pajari 41
10 Esapekka Lappi 33
2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 11:
1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 482 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 465
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 245
What’s next?
Thereβs a return to asphalt for the last two rounds of the season, beginning with the Central European Rally on October 17-20. First held in 2023, this cross-border event takes place on demanding roads in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.