The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that his team's goal was to take a victory at Rally Japan and he did not expect that his drivers would fill the top three places of the podium.
Toyota claimed a historic result on its home event yesterday as Elfyn Evans, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera finished at the top three of the overallyclassification. On the other hand, Takamoto Katsuta completed the top five in Japan and was fighting with Esapekka Lappi for the fourth place, but eventually the last one managed to defend his position after his changing the suspension set-up at the tyre fitting zone on Saunday afternoon which means that Toyota could do the 1-2-3-4 there. Earlier today, the Latvala's team announced the driver line-up for 2024 in which Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastien Ogier will share the third Yaris while Elfyn Evans signed a new multi-year contract and Takamoto Katsuta has been promoted to the second driver.
"This is a really fantastic way for us to end the season, with a 1-2-3 finish at home in Japan", Latvala said.
"It’s really a dream result.
"We came here with one aim which was to take the victory, and eventually we filled every step of the podium.
"It was also great to see the way that Taka came fighting back to fifth position.
"We could not really have hoped for any more from such a demanding weekend like this.
"Our drivers all did a really great job to try and secure the best possible result for the team and to end the season on a high like this.
"I’m really happy for everybody in the team who has done such fantastic work this year".
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