While the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team won the Manufacturers category in the 2020 World Really Championship (WRC), Sebastien Ogier of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT which took the Drivers title this year at the conclusion of the season in Italy

The 36-year old French driver has won titles in 7 WRCs since starting becoming an active participant in 2008. This year, with co-driver Julien Ingrassia, he used a Toyota Yaris WRC for the first time. He has previously driven in the Citroen, M-Ford and Volkswagen teams.

The Frenchman is the fifth different driver in 30 years to win the WRC title driving a Toyota, reclaiming the crown after Ott Tanak won the championship with the team in 2019. Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, also in his first season with Toyota, was on track to take the season’s driving honours until he slid off the road on an incredibly slippery right-hander on Saturday. He finished second in the championship. Ogier made it through to Sunday’s conclusion with a final margin of 13.9 seconds in a demanding rally with winter conditions that made driving treacherous.

“I feel the team would also have deserved to win the Manufacturers’ title; we fought as three drivers against five and came so close. But this seventh title for me is also a big achievement for the team and I couldn’t have done it without them, so thank you to them and I’m looking forward already to this bonus season for my career in 2021,” he said.

The event was the last one that Tommi Makinen, a former WRC champion, will have a role as team principal. Next year, he becomes Motorsport Advisor to Toyota. Team chairman Akio Toyoda congratulated Ogier and Ingrassia on their victory, expressed his consolation to Evans and paid tribute to Makinen who he said would continue supporting Toyota to make ever-better cars.

“Thanks to Tommi, we were also able to develop the GR Yaris,” the Toyota President said. “He led us to change our way of making cars through participating in the WRC.”