Toyota: victories on two WRC fronts 🎥
WEC JAPAN AND WRC WALES Toyota won not one but two world championships last weekend. With Sébastien Buemi, the Japanese manufacturer won the endurance home race in Fuji and with Ott Tänak at the Rally Wales GB. Such Sundays are not experienced every day by a manufacturer involved in international motorsport. First, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima won [...]
A manufacturer involved in international motorsport doesn't experience Sundays like this every day. First, Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima won the Fuji 6-hour race in a Toyota TS050 Hybrid, and a few hours later, Estonian Ott Tänak won the Wales Rally GB in a Toyota Yaris WRC.
Unusual start-finish victory
The hybrid sports car with the Swiss, the New Zealander and the Japanese started from pole position and then landed a start-finish victory. This is rather unusual in endurance races. But not even during the refueling stops and driver changes were they to be ousted from the lead by their teammates.
The three-minute summary of the race in Fuji:
Together at the top of the table
With a gap of just 34 seconds, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López gave the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team a one-two finish. As Buemi's teammates had won the World Championship opener at Silverstone in September, both Toyota trios now lead the World Endurance Championship (WEC) together.
Third place, two laps down, went to the sole Rebellion R-13 of Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato. Thanks to the success handicap for Toyota after Silverstone and further concessions for the private LMP1 teams, the Rebellion briefly held on to second place in the early stages before the sole WEC factory team re-established the hierarchy.
Toyota sets the pace
At the start of the third-last round of the 2019 World Rally Championship (WRC), Northern Irishman Kris Meeke led the way in his Toyota Yaris WRC before his teammate Ott Tänak took command. Despite his high speed through the Welsh forests and over the country roads, the Estonian made no gross mistakes in changeable weather conditions and thus secured his sixth victory of the season.
The short video shows the highlights of the fourth and last day.
Ott Tänak on course for title
After three hours at full throttle over 22 special stages, Belgian Thierry Neuville in the Hyundai i20 WRC was only 10.9 seconds behind. With Sébastien Ogier, who lost 23.8 seconds to Tänak in the C3 WRC, Citroën also had a representative on the podium.
In the world championship, Tänak is now 28 points ahead of the six-time world champion from France. In the manufacturers' standings, Toyota reduced the gap to Hyundai to eight points, thanks in part to Meeke's fourth place.
If Tänak and Co. Järveoja also win the next world championship round in Spain/Catalonia, they would be world champions ahead of time. And for the first time since 2003 (Petter Solberg from Norway), they would not be from France...
