Thierry Neuville’s World Rally Championship title hopes took a knock after suffering a power issue while Toyota’s Elfyn Evans moved into the Rally Japan lead.
Championship leader Neuville won the day’s opening test and was sitting in second before a sudden loss of power hampered the Belgian, who only needs to score six points this weekend to secure a maiden world title.
Evans shot from third to the rally lead on stage three taking a 0.7s lead over Neuville’s title rival Ott Tanak heading into the midday tyre fitting zone, with Neuville sitting third, 40.2s adrift.
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta climbed to fourth [+1m11.2s] after suffering a stage-two puncture.
Overnight leader Adrien Fourmaux held fifth [+1m13.5s] ahead of Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen [+1m19.8s] while Gregoire Munster [+1m32.4s], Nikolay Gryazin [1m44.3s], Sebastien Ogier [+2m03.4s] and Sami Pajari [+2m31.0s] rounded out the top 10.
Friday’s opening stage proved to be a disaster for Toyota as the brand’s bid to overhaul the 15-point deficit to Hyundai in the manufacturers’ title battle took a significant hit.
Ogier and Katsuta suffered punctures in stage two, Isegami’s Tunnel (23.67km), which had been earmarked as potentially the toughest of the rally. The technical stage was dry with damp patches and a covering of leaves that made conditions particularly slippery and unpredictable.
Ogier stopped 11.7km into the test to change a front-left wheel, costing him 2m05.9s which dropped him well down the order.
“No idea [how it happened], The first few corners were very slippy and I was understeering,” said Ogier.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
Katsuta was also oblivious as to why he suffered a puncture. The Japanese driver did manage to haul his GR Yaris to the stage end with a rear-left tyre off the rim, ceding 1m03s.
That meant Evans was the only Toyota driver to enjoy a clean run as he set the third fastest time on the stage to move into third overall.
But there was no stopping the Hyundais of championship leader Neuville and title rival Tanak as Toyota’s drama lifted the pressure on the pair.
Neuville, first on the road, set the pace to win the stage by 1.2s from Tanak, but it was the latter that surged into the rally lead by half a second from his team-mate.
“There was less leaves than expected but I tried to have a clean run,” said Neuville.
Such was the nature of the twisting roads that WRC2 runners Gryazin and Pajari were able to post the fourth and fifth fastest times respectively to move to fifth and sixth overall.
Overnight leader Fourmaux struggled to find grip in the slippery conditions, costing the Frenchman 46.9s as the M-Sport driver slid to fourth overall.
There was also a drama for Hyundai’s Mikkelsen as he was caught out by the leaves and mud on the road and went straight on at a left-hander. The Norwegian lost almost a minute to Neuville.
Toyota issued a fightback on stage three (Inabu/Shitara, 19.38km) as the recovering Ogier, struggling for motivation, took a stage win by 1.8s from team-mate Evans.
“I don’t know what to do at the moment. Speechless honestly. This section is definitely not my section, in the forest, we had a puncture two years ago in the same area. It is not easy to find motivation,” said Ogier.
Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Despite battling understeer, Tanak managed to extend his rally lead over Neuville to 1.9s with a clean run through the test that was much faster than the previous.
Given the sizeable gaps between the field after the first stage, Neuville adapted his speed to reduce the risk but was still fourth fastest ahead of Katsuta.
Mikkelsen was sixth quickest ahead of Fourmaux, who revealed that he was losing his brakes towards the end of the test.
However, the fight for the drivers’ title took another twist in the final stage of the loop, Shinshiro (17.41km), a brand new test for this year.
Neuville suffered a mysterious mechanical issue on his i20 N that limited the power delivery on his car. As a result the Belgian lost 37.6s to title rival Tanak but only dropped to third overall which is still enough for his title hopes, but it was unclear if the problem could be fixed at the following tyre fitting zone.
Evans took the stage win to claim the rally lead for Toyota by 0.7s from Tanak.
Gryazin led the WRC2 class by 46.7s from title hopeful Pajari, who was fortunate not to lose more time to a puncture in stage three. The Finn remained on course to win the WRC2 title after Gus Greensmith crashed while on course to snatch second from Pajari.
A repeat of the loop awaits the crews before two passes of the Okazaki Super Special stage concludes Friday’s action.