Sébastien Ogier won the Rally Islas Canarias at the weekend in a 1-2-3-4 finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, the culmination of a thrilling battle between the team’s drivers.
From the start last Thursday, the GR YarisRally1 was the dominant car on the asphalt roads of Gran Canaria, winning all of the event’s 17 stages. There was little to separate the five TGR-WRT drivers, however, who were locked in an exciting battle for the victory that went down to the final day.
Ogier led the rally from the first proper mountain stage on Friday morning until the very end, but he was pushed hard by his team-mates and his lead was never greater than nine seconds across the first two full days of competition.
It was Oliver Solberg who emerged as Ogier’s strongest competitor. He closed to within 3.8s by the end of Saturday, before cutting the gap to 2.2s with wins in the first two stages on Sunday. In the rally’s penultimate stage however he ran slightly wide over a crest and made contact with a barrier, damaging his car and forcing him and co-driver Elliott Edmondson to retire.
Ogier and his co-driver Vincent Landais won the same stage and went on to claim their first victory of the season by 19.9s.
Elfyn Evans finished second overall with co-driver Scott Martin, having also been a factor in the battle for first for much of the weekend. He won three stages on Saturday as changeable weather conditions blew in from the Atlantic and remained close to the pace of Ogier and Solberg on the final day in pursuit of additional championship points.
Evans ultimately won the Power Stage by 2.7s and the Super Sunday classification by 2s to reclaim the lead of the drivers’ championship.
Sami Pajari continued his strong recent form to secure a fourth successive podium finish together with co-driver Marko Salminen in third place overall.
Takamoto Katsuta came into the rally leading the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career and improved his pace during the event to finish just 10.4s behind Pajari in fourth together with co-driver Aaron Johnston.
Katsuta was second to Evans in the Power Stage and fourth in Super Sunday behind Ogier and Pajari and is now second in the championship, two points behind Evans. Pajari is up to third, 29 points from the lead, with Solberg four further back in fourth.
TGR-WRT scored 59 of the available 60 manufacturers’ points to increase their championship lead to 98.
The team’s third podium lockout in five rounds so far this season takes Toyota past the 300-podium mark across its WRC participation, with 302 now to its name.
Spanish duo Alejandro Cachón and Borja Rozada finished 10th overall and second in the WRC2 class in their GR Yaris Rally2 car entered by Toyota Spain and run by MSi Racing Team.
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto was running well in eighth position in the highly competitive class against many experienced and proven winners on asphalt until he clipped a barrier in Saturday’s final stage and had to stop and change a wheel and tyre, conceding two minutes. He and co-driver James Fulton continued to set competitive pace on Sunday on their way to 15th place in class.
