How Evans completed Toyota’s dream WRC campaign

In a dominant 2023 World Rally Championship campaign, sealing both the drivers’ and the manufacturers’ titles with rounds to spare, only one objective remained unaccounted for in Toyota’s dream year. Elfyn Evans led its charge at Rally Japan, supported by Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera, to complete a stunning season for the Japanese manufacturer

Japan threw the proverbial kitchen sink at World Rally Championship crews as extreme changeable weather added to the already demanding rally of 10,000 corners. However, the ‘four seasons in one day’ conditions failed to derail Elfyn Evans from delivering Toyota the home win it so craved.

With Kalle Rovanpera and Toyota having wrapped up the respective drivers’ and constructors’ titles in October, you could be forgiven for thinking the WRC season finale in the land of the rising sun would be a relaxed dead rubber affair. It was anything but. After Toyota suffered a defeat to rivals Hyundai on home soil last year, the pressure for a Toyota win at a rally held in its own back yard, Toyota City, was palpable.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.