Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team are targeting a successful finish to the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship season on home roads at Rally Japan this week 21-24 November.
With wins in seven of the 12 rallies held so far in a closely fought season, TGR-WRT enter the final round with the chance to claim a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship title. Aiming to overhaul a difference of 15 points, the team can target another maximum score across the event – similar to the one it achieved previously in Chile – knowing that such a result would be enough to take the crown.
They will try to repeat the 1-2-3 finish it achieved at last year’s Rally Japan, which was the second edition to be held on narrow and twisting asphalt roads in the forest-covered mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures. In demanding conditions, Elfyn Evans claimed the victory ahead of team-mate Sébastien Ogier.
Both return this year, together with local hero Takamoto Katsuta, who won nine stages in 2023 and heads home off the back of a strong showing at last month’s Central European Rally.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motorsport team-mates Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak battling head-to-head for the coveted crown.
Following a gripping season which has delivered five different winners across 12 rallies so far, Neuville arrives in Toyota City holding a 25-point advantage over his Estonian colleague.
For Neuville, a maiden WRC title for both him and Belgium is tantalisingly close after five runner-up finishes in previous campaigns. Tänak, the 2019 champion, faces a tougher challenge – requiring a flawless weekend and for Neuville to falter if he is to secure a second crown.
The Toyota Stadium near Nagoya once more hosts the service park as well as three super special stages during the weekend, including Thursday evening’s opening test. Friday is the longest day of the rally with 78 competitive miles and begins with the longest stage of the rally, the Isegami’s Tunnel 14.7 miles. It begins a loop of three stages to be run twice, separated by a tyre-fitting zone at Inabu, with two passes of a super special in Okazaki rounding out the day.
Saturday runs to a similar format with a trio of stages to the north-east, including the new Mount Kasagi test, run twice either side of a tyre-fitting zone at Nakatsugawa Park. The Toyota Stadium super special completes the day after evening service.
The final day’s action on Sunday takes place mostly to the south-east, with Nukata and Lake Mikawako both driven twice, plus a third visit to Toyota Stadium between final service and the rally-ending Power Stage at Lake Mikawako.
