TOYOTA GAZOO Racing ready to give the Yaris WRC a title-winning send-off

The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team aims to complete a clean sweep of FIA World Rally Championship titles when it bids farewell to the Toyota Yaris WRC in the final round of the 2021 season, Rally Monza.

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With victories in eight of the 11 rounds held so far, this has been the most successful season yet for the Yaris WRC in its fifth and final year of competition. In 2022 it will be replaced by the GR Yaris WRC Rally1 as the championship enters an exciting new era of hybrid power.

In the manufacturers’ championship the team has a lead of 47 points with a maximum of 52 points available from the final round, meaning the crown will be secured if any of its three nominated crews finish the rally inside the top seven places.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is already guaranteed to win the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles for the third year in a row. Just as in 2020, Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans will do battle for the championship in Monza. In the final event of their full-time rally careers, Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia will aim to claim their eighth championship together. They have a 17-point lead over team-mates Evans and Scott Martin, who have the chance to acheive their maiden crown.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen will also aim to finish their strong season – which included their first WRC wins in Estonia and Greece – on a high, with the chance to still join their team-mates in the final top three. TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Takamoto Katsuta drives a fourth Yaris WRC, co-driven by Aaron Johnston, at the venue where he took his maiden stage win in 2020.

The annual end-of-year rally held at the iconic Monza racing circuit near Milan first appeared on the WRC calendar one year ago. The event features stages at Monza itself – making use of the super-smooth racetrack, the historic banked oval and mixed-surface service roads – as well as sections on challenging mountain roads around Bergamo. Wintery weather impacted the 2020 event, and even if snow and ice stays away, then rain and mud could still reduce the grip available. The opening two days of the rally on Friday and Saturday will both feature a pair mountain stages repeated in the morning, followed by stages at the track in the afternoon. A trio of stages at Monza then round out the rally on Sunday.