The team principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, Jari-Matti Latvala, says that his team kept fighting until the end of Rally Japan for the manufacturer championship despite the fact that the chances were against them.
Toyota headed to Rally Japan with a 15-point disadvantage over Hyundai and Ott Tanak was leading for the most of the final WRC round suggesting that his team would steal Toyota's crown. However, Tanak had an accident in Stage 17 as he understeered into a ditch and rolled his i20N resulting in putting Toyota at the top two with Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier. Andreas Mikkelsen and Thierry Neuville were left fighting against the three Toyota drivers on Sunday where the first one was outside the top ten while Neuville finished sixth. This meant that Toyota with its double podium clinched another manufacturer title on its history and managed to finish ahead of Hyundai for three points at the end of Rally Japan.
"We have had such a rollercoaster season and we knew coming here to Rally Japan that we still had a chance to take the title, but the odds were not in our favour", Latvala said.
"However, we said that we would fight until the last metre of the rally and see what happens, and actually we kept that fight on to the end and that’s how we managed to win the title.
"We have had three devastating Sundays in the second part of the year where we’ve lost points right at the end of the rallies, and at some point it looked like there might be no hope, but we just kept bouncing back and this is a momentous Sunday for us.
"It shows you should keep fighting until the end and never lose faith".
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