With a driver from the formerly dominant and now nonexistent Volkswagen team behind the wheel, Toyota just won its first FIA World Rally Championship event . That’s right, Toyota hasn’t raced WRC since .
It only took two events for Toyota to be back atop the podium after its return, and the manufacturer did so at . Jari-Matti Latvala won the rally for Toyota, just three months after his former Volkswagen WRC team announced that it would That came more than a year after Volkswagen’s extremely costly Dieselgate emissions scandal began, so come to your own conclusions about the manufacturer’s “focus.”
After factory driver Andreas Mikkelsen , the manufacturer’s withdrawal following the 2016 race season left Latvala, Mikkelsen and Sébastien Ogier, who’s won the last four WRC titles, without rides. Latvala landed in a new Toyota Yaris, Ogier at Ford and Mikkelsen .
Latvala won Rally Sweden by nearly 30 seconds over second-place Ott Tänak on Sunday, and Ogier claimed third by about a minute behind Latvala. The win gave Latvala the championship lead, and reports that it’s the first time any driver besides Ogier has led the points since February 2014. That’s a long time.
So, in two rallies since its official return, Toyota has won already won a race and put itself on top of the points standings. It sounds like these folks are serious.