The battle for this year’s FIA World Rally Championship title is set to go to the wire as Hyundai Motorsport’s Ott Tanak leads Rally Japan overnight, with teammate and WRC points leader Thierry Neuville (above) enduring a disastrous Friday that leaves his championship hopes on a knife-edge.
The day began with Hyundai on top as Tanak and Neuville posted a commanding 1-2 through the opening pair of stages. But as Tanak — the only driver who can wrest the title from his teammate — kept the pace and pressure on, Neuville’s fortunes took a dramatic turn on the third stage when his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 suffered a turbo pressure issue, severely reducing its power.
With no midday service and limited spare parts available, Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe faced the grueling task of nursing their car through five more all-asphalt stages, shipping over seven minutes and plunging to 15th overall. Now, with a mountain to climb to return to a point-scoring position, their hopes of securing the six points needed to guarantee themselves a maiden world title rest firmly on the haul available from the Super Sunday final leg.
“It has definitely been tough,” Neuville admitted. “I can’t really find any positives from the day. When the car was working the feeling was good, that’s the only positive.”
Tanak, meanwhile, put on a masterclass of speed and precision over the slippery, leaf-covered mountain roads around Aichi. With nothing to lose, the Estonian adopted a flat-out approach that not only kept his championship chances alive, but also bolstered Hyundai’s bid to fend off Toyota Gazoo Racing in the fight for the WRC manufacturers’ crown. His performance became even more critical after Andreas Mikkelsen crashed his i20 N Rally1 into a tree on the day’s fourth stage.
The 2019 WRC champ initially faced pressure from Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who claimed a slender 0.7s lead in his GR Yaris Rally1 at the day’s halfway point. But after a commanding afternoon from Tanak, including a time 14.4s faster than Evans on the 14.71-mile Isegami’s Tunnel 2 stage, the Estonian reclaimed the lead and stretched his overnight margin to 20.9s.
“The stages were quite OK,” said Tanak. “There are two stages [tomorrow] that we know, but one is new. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
Mikkelsen’s off caused a delay and forced the following Shinshiro 2 stage to run under fading light. This played into the hands of M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux, whose foresight to fit auxiliary lights on his Puma Rally1 paid dividends.
Fourmaux capitalized on home hero Takamoto Katsuta’s visibility struggles in his GR Yaris to snatch third overall. The Frenchman finished the day a single tenth ahead of the Japanese driver, but trailing second-placed Evans by more than a minute and a half.
Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier ended a challenging day in fifth after the eight-time WRC champ lost nearly two minutes to a wheel change on the morning’s opening stage. Gregoire Munster followed in sixth with his M-Sport Ford Puma, the last of the Rally 1 cars in points-scoring positions.
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Nikolay Gryazin has been untouchable so far, but it’s Finland’s Sami Pajari who’s perfectly positioned to claim the WRC2 title on the Japanese finale.
Citroen C3 driver Gryazin set the class pace on every Friday stage. His flawless performance saw him build an impressive lead of 1m13.5s over Pajari’s GR Yaris Rally2.
For Pajari and co-driver Enni Malkonen, the day was all about strategy. The Finnish duo comfortably held second at the close of the opening leg, fully aware that such a result by Sunday afternoon would secure them the WRC2 title over Oliver Solberg, who’s already completed his maximum seven counting rounds and isn’t competing in Japan. Aside from a minor setback with a puncture late in the morning’s opening stage, Pajari enjoyed a clean run.
“Today was quite solid,” he noted. “OK, Nikolay is far ahead, but at the moment that is fine for us.”
Saturday’s penultimate leg features three all-asphalt stages, each run twice, before concluding with another short, sharp blast through the Toyota Stadium super special.
WRC Rally Japan, positions after Leg One, SS9
1 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) 1h26m17.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +20.9s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria Ford Puma Rally1) +1m53.9s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m54.0s
5 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m15.6s
6 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m37.4s
7 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +3m43.6s
8 Sami Pajari/Enni Malkonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +4m57.1s
9 Josh McErlean/James Fulton (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 non-points) +5m55.7s
10 Hiroki Arai/Shunsuke Matsuo (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +5m57.4s
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