Sebastien Ogier leads Toyota 1-2-3 ahead of Takamoto Katsuta

Sebastien Ogier delivered an impressive drive to end Friday leading Rally Japan ahead of Toyota team-mates Takamoto Katsuta and Elfyn Evans as the World Rally Championship title fight took another twist. 

Ogier claimed three of Friday’s six technical asphalt stages to open up a 7.9s lead over Katsuta, with championship leader Evans 10.2s in arrears.  

While Ogier boosted his bid for a record equalling ninth world title, overnight leader Kalle Rovanpera’s championship aspirations took a hit. The Finn, 13 points adrift of Evans, lost more than five minutes when he clipped a barrier in stage three, which resulted in damaged left rear suspension. Rovanpera recovered to 17th across the afternoon.    

Rovanpera surrendered the lead in the day’s opening stage to Ogier, but it was short-lived. Katsuta claimed stage three to move into a 0.5s lead, before Ogier took the advantage back again after taking more risks than the Japanese through the Isegami’s Tunnel stage, which has previously inflicted trouble in the past.   

It was in the afternoon where Ogier, now confident with his pacenotes, began to edge clear of his rivals with victories on the second pass through Isegami’s Tunnel and the Inabu/Shitara stages. The Frenchman was denied a clean sweep of the afternoon loop by Evans, which did however ensure a sweep of stage wins for Toyota.  

«It has been good given that we are all fighting for little things these days, just tenths here and there,” said Ogier. “We managed to create a bit more of gap this afternoon, it is not a real gap still, but it is always better to have this couple of seconds to breathe a little bit maybe. 

“Tomorrow we will need to do the same and try and stay very focused and have this strong pace because we know at the end of the weekend it will be more challenging with the weather. The main thing is we are here with the target of winning the rally and to achieve that we need to keep doing the same.” 

Katsuta, seeking a breakthrough maiden WRC win on home soil, produced strong pace throughout, ending the day as Ogier’s nearest rival. Katsuta managed to hold off Evans to the tune of 2.3s. 

“Of course it is nice to be back in second place. I can push harder but we need to find the balance and tomorrow the stages are a bit different to today,” said Katsuta. 

Evans chalked up two stage wins across Friday, but ultimately couldn’t find the pace to mount a challenge to title rival Ogier.  

“I’m 10 seconds away from being happy,” said Evans. “For sure, in those dirty and tricky sections Seb is clearly done well, but otherwise he has driven well too.” 

Fourmaux leads Hyundai’s charge  

Adrien Fourmaux provided hope for Hyundai on a day where the Korean marque was humbled by rivals Toyota. The Frenchman almost denied Toyota a clean sweep of stage wins after falling 0.1s shy from taking stage seven. 

Once again, Hyundai’s frailties on asphalt were evident but it was Fourmaux who managed to find a way to adapt his driving style to navigate the problems. Forumaux ended Friday in fourth, 24.0s adrift of the lead, and 0.3s ahead of Toyota’s Sami Pajari. 

Forumaux’s more experienced team-mates Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville conceded more than a minute on their way to sixth and seventh.  

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport

Tanak, driving the older generation i20 N was unable to extract pace to challenge at the front. Neuville piloted the same ‘Evolution’ spec car as Fourmaux, but the former struggled with a broken rear differential in the morning. Set up changes yielded more pace in the afternoon, but the Belgian was unable to match Fourmaux.  

When asked how he managed to fare better than his team-mates, Forumaux said: “I just drove and tried to adapt my driving instead of always changing the set up. I decided to push and it was working quite well. 

«I think with the issues we have it is quite easy to be down and you lose the confidence and motivation. This is what I had a little bit in Central Europe in some stages, so here I just decided to go for it and we tried.” 

Hyundai wasn’t the only team to struggle as M-Sport-Ford battled understeer with both its Ford Pumas. Gregoire Munster was left frustrated by the handling issues but managed to end the day in eighth, while team-mate Josh McErlean retired from the rally completely after his Puma suffered heavy damage from a high-speed 16G impact crash on stage three. 

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— The Motorsport.com Team