Elfyn Evans won the World Rally Championship season finale in Japan while Toyota snatched the manufacturers’ title in a Power Stage thriller after Thierry Neuville had already been crowned world champion.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin clinched their first WRC win of the season for Toyota after Hyundai’s Ott Tanak crashed out of a comfortable 38s lead on stage 17, which handed Hyundai team-mate Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe a maiden WRC title in dramatic circumstances.
Tanak’s demise turned the manufacturers’ title battle between Hyundai and Toyota on its head with the former’s 11-point lead wiped out. Incredibly, both teams heading into the final Power Stage were tied on points, but it was Toyota that ultimately triumphed thanks to an inspired drive by Sebastien Ogier.
Evans clinched the rally win by 1m27.3s from Toyota team-mate Ogier, while M-Sport-Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux ended his breakout WRC season with a fifth podium in third [+1m55.6s].
Japan’s relentless and twisting asphalt stages once again delivered a demanding rally.
Up until his crash on Sunday, Tanak had been the class of the field as the 2019 world champion did everything he could to keep his slim drivers' title hopes alive by leading the rally.
Tanak moved into the lead after stage two before briefly losing the advantage to last year’s Japan winner Evans, who led Toyota’s charge after team-mates Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta picked up front and rear-left punctures respectively.
Ogier lost two minutes to change his wheel while Katsuta was able to nurse his GR Yaris to the finish, losing only a minute. The issues had swung the manufacturers’ title battle in Hyundai’s direction.
Tanak and Neuville held a one-two after stage three before drama struck the latter in his pursuit for a maiden world title. A sudden loss of power caused by a turbo failure on Neuville’s i20 N swung the drivers’ title battle back towards team-mate Tanak.
With only a tyre fitting zone punctuating Friday's stage loops, Neuville was unable to fix the issue and therefore haemorrhaged more than seven minutes. Neuville slumped to 15th and outside points-paying positions, with the Belgian needing six points from the weekend to secure the title.
Tanak made his first serious move in stage five, taking 14.4s out of Evans to move into a comfortable lead, which stood at 20.9s at the end of stage nine with Fourmaux third, Katsuta fourth and Ogier fifth.
Evans responded to Tanak’s impressive pace on Saturday morning to close the gap to 15.3s after stage 12 that was cancelled before Tanak or Evans could tackle the road when an unauthorised vehicle broke through a security checkpoint and drove onto the stage. The incident is the subject of an FIA investigation.
Struggles to turn the GR Yaris halted Evans’ charge in the afternoon. This coupled with stunning stage times from Tanak left Evans 38s adrift heading into Sunday’s final five stages.
Ogier delivered strong pace to climb to third ahead of Fourmaux and Katsuta, the latter fortunate to survive a half spin in stage 12 that cost the local hero, who was instructed to play a team game by Toyota. M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster showed impressive pace to sit sixth ahead of Neuville, who completed a stunning fightback.
The battle for the rally win and both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ champion was turned on its head after stage 17, where Tanak was caught out by a slippery right-hander which resulted in a dramatic crash that handed Neuville the title and Evans the rally lead.
Evans held his nerve to claim the win to seal the runner-up spot in the championship as Toyota snatched the manufacturers’ crown on the Power Stage.
Hyundai’s Neuville and Mikkelsen threw everything at the final stage with the latter even running wide into a tree but it wasn’t enough to secure the constructors' championship.
Ogier won the Power Stage by 1.9s from Neuville with Evans third and Katsuta fourth, which was enough to snatch the title from Hyundai.
Munster ended his first full season in Rally1 to equal a career-best fifth ahead of newly-crowned world champion Neuville.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin claimed a commanding third victory of 2024, but it was Sami Pajari, who sealed the WRC2 title after completing a measured drive to second in class.
"It is a really nice feeling and a big relief after basically a few days driving quite on the safe side," said Pajari.
"After Friday midday it was looking okay and confutable and then it was all about being clever and not being too slow or do anything stupid.
"Of course it is a really nice feeling. If you are writing a script at the beginning of the year this is something you would write as the grand finale. It was a really nice season from us and our team and from Toyota’s side as they have brought a new car into the championship and in the first year it was able to win it so that is really nice."
Pajari announced shortly after the finish that he will end his partnership with co-driver Enni Malkonen.
"We have had a really nice last three seasons and Enni has done a really good job but this [decision] is something normally can happen in working life. For the moment this will be the last rally for me with Enni and there is no better way to end the partnership than by going big [winning] the WRC2 title."
