Posted: 8/12/2020
Toyota's Sébastien Ogier has won the World Rally Championship drivers' title with victory in the Toyota Yaris WRC at an eventful deciding round of the season in Italy.
It was the seventh title for Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia, who were competing in their first season with the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team.
The Frenchman becomes the fifth different driver in 30 years to win the WRC title driving a Toyota, reclaiming the crown after Ott Tänak won the championship with the team in 2019.
Toyota's Elfyn Evans, also in his first season with Toyota, was on track to take the season's driving honours until he slid off the road on an incredibly slippery right-hander on Saturday. He finished second in the championship.
Ogier made it through to Sunday's conclusion with a final margin of 13.9 seconds in a demanding rally with winter conditions that made driving treacherous.
In the manufacturers' championship, Toyota came a close second, five points away from the winner, thanks to the efforts of its full-season line-up who won four of the seven events between them.
Tommi Mäkinen joined Ogier and Ingrassia on the podium in his final event as team principal before he moves to a new role as Motorsport Advisor to Toyota in January 2021.
Development driver Takamoto Katsuta completed his five-round schedule in a Yaris WRC as part of the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program with victory in the rally-ending Power Stage - his maiden WRC fastest time.
Team chairman Akio Toyoda congratulated Ogier and Ingrassia on their victory, expressed his consolation to Evans and paid tribute to Mäkinen who he said would continue supporting Toyota to make ever-better cars.
"Thanks to Tommi, we were also able to develop the GR Yaris," Mr Toyoda said. "He led us to change our way of making cars through participating in the WRC."