Rallying-Rovanpera wins in Central Europe as Toyota seal manufacturers' title

The double world champion's third win of his last season before switching to circuit racing left the Finn second overall in the championship, level on points with teammate Sebastien Ogier and 13 behind Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the overall lead. "The drivers’ championship still won’t be easy but we have at least increased our chances with this result and we will try to continue like this on the next rally in Japan," said Rovanpera.

Kalle Rovanpera won the Rally of Central Europe on Sunday as Toyota sealed the manufacturers' world championship for the fifth year in a row. The double world champion's third win of his last season before switching to circuit racing left the Finn second overall in the championship, level on points with teammate Sebastien Ogier and 13 behind Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the overall lead.

"The drivers' championship still won't be easy but we have at least increased our chances with this result and we will try to continue like this on the next rally in Japan," said Rovanpera. Evans had been two points behind Ogier going into the weekend on the asphalt roads of Germany, Czech Republic and Austria.

The Welsh driver finished second on Sunday, 43.7 seconds behind, with Hyundai's Ott Tanak third. Evans now has 247 points to Ogier and Rovanpera on 234 with Tanak on 197. Toyota have 632 to Hyundai's 464 with two rounds remaining in Japan and Saudi Arabia.

"For me it maybe wasn't quite the weekend we really hoped for. I think we should have had the potential to do more, so I'm a bit frustrated," said Evans as he celebrated the team's achievement. The title was a ninth for Toyota, one short of the record held by Lancia. The Japanese marque has won 11 of 12 rallies so far this season.

Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta was fourth on Sunday ahead of Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux and Toyota's Sami Pajari. Ogier, who crashed into a tree on Saturday while leading, won every stage on Sunday including the final power stage to salvage a maximum 10 points, with Evans second and Rovanpera third.

Hyundai's reigning champion Thierry Neuville crashed into a bridge on stage 15. "(Co-driver) Martijn (Wydaeghe) and I had quite a big hit this morning," said the Belgian, who was unhurt, after hospital checks. The stage was cancelled after the impact, with the car blocking the road.

"Everything was normal, and then I made a mistake just before the bridge. It was our mistake, we were too optimistic with a pace note and understeered into the bridge barriers."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)