Toyota has done it – it has won its home World Rally Championship event in Japan.
But not only that, it sealed it by locking out the entire podium – perfectly atoning for its defeat to Hyundai in Japan 12 months earlier.
It moves Toyota into a special club of manufacturers to not just have won at home, but to fill out each of the first three places.
Here are the marques Toyota joins. There are more here than you might think!
Volkswagen
Rally Germany 2015
For all of Volkswagen’s obvious WRC success in the mid 2010s, for a while its home event was the one that got away. No cars featured on the podium in 2013, and its two drivers’ title contenders Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala crashed three times between them in 2014.
But VW made up for it, and then some, in 2015 when all three Polo R WRCs came home in the three leading positions – Ogier leading home Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen.
Elfyn Evans was the only driver to beat a Polo to a stage win, such was Volkswagen’s dominance that weekend.
Citroën
Rally France Alsace 2010
For a glorious nine years, Sébastien Loeb and Citroën ruled the world. But there was never a moment quite as sweet as Rally France Alsace 2010.
Why? Because it finished in Loeb’s home town of Hagenau on a weekend where Loeb claimed his seventh drivers’ title.
There was plenty of joy for Citroën too as it locked out the podium on home turf. Dani Sordo came second, while Petter Solberg completed the rostrum in his privately-entered C4 WRC.
Lancia
Rally Sanremo 1976
Rally Sanremo 1983
Rally Sanremo 1988
Rally Sanremo 1991
No manufacturer enjoyed quite as much success at home as Lancia did, which won three times as many Rally Sanremos (12) as any other brand. And a third of those times, it locked out the podium.
The first dream result came in 1976 when Swede Björn Waldegård led home Italian team-mates Sandro Munari and Pinto Raffaele in their trio of Stratoses – although it was a controversial finish!
In 1983 Markku Alén, Walter Röhrl and Attilio Bettega scored a Sanremo 1-2-3 in the 037, while the Group A Delta locked out the podium twice in 1988 (Miki Biasion, Alex Fiorio and Dario Cerrato) and 1991 (Didier Auriol, Miki Biasion and Dario Cerrato).
Lancia did record a 1-2-3 in 1986 with the Delta S4, but the result of the event was annulled due to Peugeot’s disqualification for illegal sideskirts being overturned, so it cannot be considered a WRC event.
Fiat
Rally Sanremo 1977
Lancia isn’t the only Italian manufacturer to dominate its home event. One year after it first did it, Fiat repeated the trick with a 1-2-3 of its own in Sanremo.
Ironically though it was a Frenchman that beat two Italians in their 131 Abarths. Jean-Claude Andruet was victorious ahead of Maurizio Verini and ‘Tony’.
Alpine-Renault
Tour de Corse 1973
The first manufacturer to ever record a 1-2-3 finish at home, though, was Alpine-Renault, which locked out the podium at the final event of the first ever WRC season in 1973.
And that rally was the Tour de Corse.
In a dominant season in which it won the manufacturers’ title, Jean-Pierre Nicolas, Jean-François Piot and Jean-Luc Thérier brought their A110s home first, second and third.
Peugeot
Tour de Corse 2002
The Peugeot 206 WRC was the dominant car at the turn of the 21st century – winning five of the six available world titles from 2000-02.
Perhaps its best individual result though was the 2002 Tour de Corse, as Peugeot scored its one and only 1-2-3 of the era – and did so on home ground.
Typically for an asphalt rally (Tour de Corse) it was Gilles Panizzi who won, with Marcus Grönholm second and Richard Burns third.
Toyota
Rally Japan 2023
Amazingly, Toyota had recorded three 1-2-3-4 finishes in its history (and bizarrely all on Safari Rally Kenya) before it ever achieved a podium lockout at home.
In fairness though Toyota has only contested its home event (Japan) twice, and recorded the dream result at the second time of asking.
In incredibly difficult conditions, Elfyn Evans rose to the front and led home a dream Toyota result ahead of world champion team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä.
