Toyota secures the manufacturer title as Ogier and Rovanperä take 1st and 3rd in Spain

Sébastien Ogier together with his new co-driver Benjamin Veillas won the RallyRACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada. Ogier becomes the fifth driver to win an event during the season alongside Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tänak, Sébastien Loeb, and Thierry Neuville while the co-driver stood on the podium for the first time in his career in the FIA World Rally Championship.

The Frenchman has done his job, he got into the lead after the midday service on Friday and since then he has held on to it. For the team, it is an important victory where together with teammate and 2022 world champion Rovanperä in the third place means Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT secured the manufacturer title.

The margin for Ogier was 16.4 seconds to second-place finisher Neuville, who towards the end of the year found increasingly better speed in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. Rovanperä took another podium place of the season, he opened strong and had the lead during the weekend but a puncture caused time loss and a drop in the list.

Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

Neuville´s teammate Tänak drove home a decent fourth place for Hyundai, 32 seconds ahead of the local hero Dani Sordo in fifth, the Spaniard did not gather pace to fight for the victory during the weekend. Toyota´s Elfyn Evans‘ frustrated weekend ends with sixth place, since teammate Ogier left his full-time contract, the Briton’s pace has also dropped, they both shared a lot of settings and tips during tests and events, something that now only happens sporadically in pace with the Frenchman’s entry, because Evans was missing 35 seconds to threaten forward.

Seventh place goes to Takamoto Katsuta, who is driving steadily but in line with Hyundai’s increased pace has lost places during the season. The last three places in the top 10 go to M-Sport Ford with Adrien Fourmaux, Craig Breen, and Pierre-Louis Loubet. The Spanish round was also the last time Paul Nagle will be co-driving for Breen after a long successful career he is ending it now, we do wish him a great and healthy future.

Credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

Teemu Suninen drove to victory in the WRC2 class, the Finn was 32.5 seconds ahead of the Frenchman Yohan Rossel while the Russian Nikolay Gryazin ended up third on the podium with 50 seconds down to the Frenchman. Meanwhile just outside the podium as fourth was Emil Lindholm who is fighting for the WRC2 title, he was followed by fellow Finn Jari Huttunen, and in sixth the Pole Kajetan Kajetanowicz, who is also fighting for the title.,

In the WRC2 Driver´s Championship, Andreas Mikkelsen still keeps the lead, but Kajetanowicz and Lindholm are four and five points behind respectively ahead of the final in Japan where both drivers will start!

In the final round of the 2022 WRC3 series, it was Lauri Joona who won the rally but also clinched the WRC3 title over the Czech driver Jan Cerny, who ended probably very frustrated in second with 9 seconds behind the champion.

Official overall result (top 10)

Official WRC2 result (top 10)

Official WRC3 result