Elfyn Evans won the World Rally Championship season finale in Japan on Sunday.
The Dinas Mawddwy star helped Toyota snatch the manufacturers’ title in a Power Stage thriller after Thierry Neuville had already been crowned world champion.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin clinched their first WRC win of the season for Toyota after Hyundai’s Ott Tanak crashed out of a comfortable 38s lead on stage 17, which handed Hyundai team-mate Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe a maiden WRC title in dramatic circumstances.

Tanak’s demise turned the manufacturers’ title battle between Hyundai and Toyota on its head with the former’s 11-point lead wiped out. 
Incredibly, both teams heading into the final Power Stage were tied on points, but it was Toyota that ultimately triumphed thanks to an inspired drive by Sebastien Ogier.

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Evans clinched the rally win by 1:27.3s from Toyota team-mate Ogier while M-Sport-Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux ended his breakout WRC season with a fifth podium in third.

Up until his crash on Sunday, Tanak had been the class of the field as the 2019 world champion did everything he could to keep his slim drivers’ title hopes alive by leading the rally.

Tanak moved into the lead after stage two before briefly losing the advantage to last year’s Japan winner Evans, who led Toyota’s charge after team-mates Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta picked up front and rear-left punctures respectively.

A sudden loss of power caused by a turbo failure on Neuville’s i20 N swung the drivers’ title battle back towards team-mate Tanak.

Evans responded to Tanak’s impressive pace on Saturday morning to close the gap to 15.3s after stage 12.

The battle for the rally win and both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship was turned on its head after stage 17, where Tanak was caught out by a slippery right-hander which resulted in a dramatic crash that handed Neuville the title and Evans the rally lead while Toyota snatched the manufacturers’ crown on the Power Stage.