DOLGELLAU’S Elfyn Evans helped his Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally team to a fifth consecutive FIA World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title at the Central European Rally over the weekend.

Team-mate Kalle Rovanperä claimed a valuable victory in the battle for the drivers’ crown whilst Evans completed a one-two finish by taking second overall on the final stage as he reclaimed the lead of the drivers’ championship.

The Welshman crossing the finish line was enough for the manufacturers’ crown to be secured with two rounds still remaining.

Evans said: “I’m overjoyed for this team winning the manufacturers’ championship once again.

“There’s a massive effort behind this and everybody is working very hard to deliver us the best car and give us the best chances, so I have to say a huge thank you and well done.

“For me it maybe wasn’t quite the weekend we really hoped for.

“I think we should have had the potential to do more, so I’m a bit frustrated. It was important to turn things around a bit today and it was a much better day.

“We managed to grab the second place back from Ott, so I’m happy with how things turned out.”

It is the ninth WRC manufacturers’ title won in total by Toyota – just one fewer than the record set by Lancia.

Rovanperä’s victory together with co-driver Jonne Halttunen is the 11th victory from 12 rounds so far this season for the GR YARIS Rally1 car.

The Finnish duo were embroiled in an incredibly close fight for the lead with team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais through the first half of the event, which took place over demanding and varied asphalt roads across Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.

Rovanperä took the lead on Saturday morning’s first stage before Ogier would then hit trouble in the following test, sliding wide into a tree after he lost pressure in his front-left tyre.

From there, Rovanperä carefully controlled his advantage, ultimately taking victory by 43.7 seconds.

Evans was similarly involved in a close battle with another championship contender – Ott Tänak (Hyundai) – and this one went down to the wire

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin – starting his 200th WRC event – began the final day 8.4 seconds away from Tänak but closed to within 1.1s before the final stage, where they went 6.7s quicker than their rivals.

Also finishing second in the Power Stage and Super Sunday classifications, Evans now leads the drivers’ standings by 13 points ahead of his two team-mates Rovanperä and Ogier and 50 over Tänak.

Ogier was able to restart on Sunday and was quickest in every stage as he claimed the full 10 points available across Super Sunday and the Power Stage.

Rovanperä ended up third in Super Sunday and the Power Stage. Takamoto Katsuta finished fourth overall and in Super Sunday and the Power Stage, showing strong pace ahead of his upcoming home rally in Japan with two stage wins on Saturday alongside co-driver Aaron Johnston. Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen also set some strong stage times as they finished sixth overall.

The penultimate round of the season takes place on home ground for TGR at Rally Japan on November 6-9. The event takes place on twisting asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures, around the service park in Toyota City near Nagoya.