TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has claimed a home 1-2-3 finish at Rally Japan with Sébastien Ogier edging out Elfyn Evans in a wet finale to take victory and set up a last-round showdown for the drivers’ championship.

Sami Pajari finished third overall to complete the team’s podium lockout and secure his maiden WRC podium finish.

It is the team’s third successive Rally Japan win from four editions (and the second 1-2-3 finish) and a first for Ogier and his co-driver Vincent Landais, who were locked in a close battle with Dolgellau’s Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin with under 10 seconds separating the pair for most of the weekend.

Ogier took a lead of 6.5s into the final day, which was held in challenging wet conditions.

Evans made the faster start to the morning’s first stage and looked set to take the lead, only for Ogier to recover in a particularly tricky final section.

Ogier then won the next stage and another fastest time in the penultimate test meant he led by 11.5s going into the final stage.

In a thrilling finish, Ogier and Evans were separated by just 0.096s in the rally-ending Power Stage.

Also topping the Super Sunday classification, Ogier therefore secured the maximum 35 points and closes to within three points of championship leader Evans with one rally remaining.

Kalle Rovanperä and his co-driver Jonne Halttunen also remain in contention, 24 points from the lead, in what is now an all-TGR fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles.

They recovered to finish sixth overall after losing five minutes following contact with a barrier in Friday’s second stage, and took third on Super Sunday and the Power Stage.

Evans said: “It’s been a fun and strong weekend overall and another great result for the team at home in Japan.

“It wasn’t easy today to be in such a big fight in those difficult conditions.

“We gave it our best shot but Seb was driving very well and was too tough to beat today.

“It was so close between the two of us, especially in the Power Stage, and it feels like we’ve missed out on quite a few points, but that’s the name of the game and everything is still to play for going into the final rally.”

Ogier said: “This is the perfect result for us and I’m very happy to win this rally in Japan at home for Toyota.

“It’s been an intense weekend, especially this last day with very challenging conditions.

“A big congratulations to the team for giving us a great car again to fight like this, because today we started a completely different rally with a completely different setup and it worked straight away.

“Elfyn was pushing me the whole weekend, and great wins only happen when you have great opponents.”

Drivers championship standings after round 13: 1, Elfyn Evans 272 points; 2, Sébastien Ogier 269; 3 Kalle Rovanperä 248; 4, Ott Tänak 213; 5, Thierry Neuville 166; 6, Takamoto Katsuta 111; 7, Adrien Fourmaux 96; 8, Sami Pajari 94; 9, Oliver Solberg 70; 10, Grégoire Munster 36

Rally Saudi Arabia, a brand-new gravel event, joins the WRC as the final round of the season on November 26-29.