“I had almost lost all hope”

After the Greece rally at the beginning of September, and a hat-trick for the Hyundai team, the Japanese manufacturer was in a very bad position with 35 points behind its rival. Over the three remaining rallies of the season, and despite a big disappointment in Central Europe, Toyota managed to regain points from the rival team each time.

“After the Greece rally and another bad result, I had almost lost all hope of a title. But I quickly recovered to tell the team that we could still do it and that we had to fight until the last meter of the last special stage of the championship. You must never lose faith.

We’ve had an up-and-down season and we knew coming here to Rally Japan that we still had a chance to win the title, but the odds weren’t in our favor.

It was the most exciting stage (the Power Stage) that I had as team principal, but also the most difficult day. So I am very happy and proud. I can’t really say enough about our team’s performance today.”