Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It is very nice for us to be back in Japan and in our hometown in Toyota City. It’s been a very successful season for us but still we have this home rally to win. There’s a good feeling in the team and our drivers all seem happy and are motivated to do well. This first stage was only a very short one and everyone had driven it already in shakedown, so the times were very close, and the most important thing is that we got through without any issues. Tomorrow the stages are much longer, so the differences can be bigger between the drivers, but I’m sure it will be exciting to follow.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“We always get such a warm welcome here in Japan and it’s nice to get the rally started. There was a bit of rain overnight so conditions were tricky in the shakedown this morning, but the feeling with the car was all OK. In the first stage we maybe didn’t have the cleanest run; with the stage drying out you would expect the grip to be better, but there were still some tricky places. We have to wait and see what the weather does over the rest of the rally. During recce the stages looked fairly dry and clean compared to previous years, but let’s see how it turns out.”

Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s always nice to be back in Japan and at the home rally for TGR, with a lot of fans supporting us already this week before the rally had even started. Shakedown was a good chance to get up to speed, and a reminder of how tricky the stages and conditions can be here. It was interesting to do the same stage again this afternoon, and even though my feeling on this stage was maybe not the best, the time was obviously not bad. Tomorrow’s stages should be a bit more open and hopefully we have a good feeling there.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It’s always exciting to start Rally Japan. It’s a special event for the team and I always enjoy seeing the crazy amount of support that we get here. There’s a lot to play for this weekend in the championship and we need to be very focused and try to do a good event. This first stage is quite different from the rest of the rally with low grip so it was a tricky one, even though we’ve driven it many times previously as a shakedown. So far, so good though, and tomorrow hopefully the conditions are nice and enjoyable with some good grip.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I’m excited to be starting this special home rally. The stages are very demanding with so many corners, so it’s never easy to make the pacenotes, but I always feel big support from the local fans on the road sections and on the stages. This first stage is quite different to the others in this rally, and I don’t feel so comfortable on this one, but the time was not too bad. It’s a long rally ahead but I feel confident for the proper stages in the mountains tomorrow, and I will try my best to get a good result.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It’s a big honour to start Rally Japan as a Toyota driver and to face a new challenge here with the Rally1 car for the first time. Some of the stages can be really cool and enjoyable and some others can be really challenging and slippery. We had some really slippery conditions today, especially in shakedown, but the feeling was good already on the first pass. Then the grip was better this afternoon and we were again quite close to the pace. The weather can be a challenge, but I will just try to have a good flow, enjoy the driving and hopefully set some good times.”

End of day one (Thursday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2m07.5s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +0.1s
3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.3s
4 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.4s
5 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.5s
6= Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.8s
6= Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +0.8s
8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1.0s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +3.1s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3.9s
(Results as of 18:00 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
Friday features a loop of three familiar stages to the east of Toyota City – Inabu/Shitara, Shinshiro and Isegami’s Tunnel – that will each be repeated following mid-day service, forming a total of 108.3 competitive kilometres.