Elfyn Evans closed in on Sébastien Ogier as the fight for the Rally Japan lead and World Rally Championship title intensified on Saturday.
Evans started the day in third, 10.2s adrift of leader and title rival Ogier and 2.3s behind fellow Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta, but the leaderboard began to shift through the morning loop.
The Welshman was faster than both his Toyota rivals in stage eight [Obara 1,16.44km] which was enough to jump Katsuta into second and close the gap to Ogier to 8.9s.
Evans repeated the feat in stage nine before going on to win stage 10 [Mt. Kasagi 1, 21.74km] where he took a sizeable 5.4s chunk out of Ogier. On the second pass of the stage Evans starred again to secure his 200th career stage win, and in the process take a further 0.6s out of Ogier to leave the deficit standing at 1.4s.
The second run through Mt. Kasagi proved eventful for home hero Katsuta. The Toyota driver, seeking a maiden WRC win, misjudged his entry into a chicane and clattered into several water-filled plastic barriers. The impact caused damage to the front right of his Toyota GR Yaris that resulted in a loss of power steering.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing
Katsuta pulled over to avoid holding up Ogier but lost more than four minutes in the process as he slid from third to seventh overall. A clearly emotional Katsuta declined to speak to reporters at the stage end.
The final place of the podium was inherited by Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who delivered an inspired drive across the morning stages. The Frenchman admitted he was taking risks but it paid off by winning stage eight and nine. Fourmaux continued to lead the Hyundai charge to close to within 17.7s of the leader Ogier after stage 11.
Grégoire Munster, Louis Louka, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
Toyota’s Sami Pajari was unable to match Fourmaux and began to drift away from the Hyundai driver. The Finn also lost time to a half spin that included contact with a bank that damaged the right rear corner of his GR Yaris.
Pajari moved up to fourth following Katsuta’s issue and was a comfortable 1m37.7s ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, who continued to struggle for pace in his older generation i20 N. M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster moved up to sixth having enjoyed much better handling from his Ford Puma after struggling with understeer through Friday.
Rovanpera climbs back into the points
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: TOYOTA GAZOO Racing
Another driver on the move was Kalle Rovanperä as his recovery from damaging his left rear suspension in stage three continued. The championship contender started the day in 17th position but ended stage 11 in ninth, behind the leading Rally2 runner Oliver Solberg.
The two extra championship points gained could prove critical as the Finn looks to remain in the title hunt heading into the Saudi Arabia finale later this month.
Neuville retires with mechanical issue
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville’s dismal rally continued on Saturday morning with the reigning world champion suffering a broken driveshaft on a road section before stage eight.
Neuville was forced to crawl through the test dropping 1m39.7s before opting to head back to service and into retirement. This was the third issue the Belgian has suffered this week after a transmission problem on Thursday followed by a broken rear differential on Friday.
“It happened on the road section and we had a transmission failure similar to shakedown so we have to investigate. Unfortunately it is very disappointing because we wanted to use that day to get more mileage and try different things,” said Neuville.
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