TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s championship rivals Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans continue to duel over the lead of Rally Japan with one day remaining.
Saturday was the longest day of the rally, taking crews north-east from Toyota City for a trio of asphalt stages each run twice and separated by just a tyre-fitting zone.
Ogier carried a lead of 7.9 seconds into the day but it was Evans who was quickest across the morning loop, winning the third and final stage of Mt. Kasagi to close to within 2s of the lead arriving at the tyre-fitting zone. Takamoto Katsuta was just 3.2s further back after also driving a strong morning, including a second-fastest time in SS10.
Unfortunately, Katsuta’s part in the lead battle would come to an end in the first stage of the afternoon – the repeat pass of Mt. Kasagi – when he ran wide and hit a barrier, sustaining damage to the steering system.
Completing the stage with around four minutes lost, Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston then carried out repairs on the road section that allowed them to continue closer to normal pace for the day’s remaining stages, although they ultimately retired after exceeding the time limit and will return tomorrow under restart rules.
Evans was fastest again in the second pass of Mt. Kasagi, reducing his deficit to Ogier further to 1.4s, but Ogier responded with stage wins in the afternoon’s two remaining mountain tests. He then went quickest too in the new Toyota City super special that rounded out the day, opening his lead once more to 6.5s over Evans.
Sami Pajari runs fourth overall after another solid day with several top-four stage times in his TGR-WRT2 entry.
Kalle Rovanperä continues to recover ground after the time he lost with damage on Friday, climbing up from 17th to seventh place overall and with a chance to gain bonus points towards his title hopes on Sunday.
Oliver Solberg continues to head the Rally2 field in his GR Yaris run by Printsport and Alejandro Cachón remains the leader of WRC2 with Teo Martín Motorsport.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“Today has been another very exciting day to follow, and I’ve just been loving this fight between Seb and Elfyn. Of course it can be a bit nerve-wracking also, but these are two of the best drivers in the world fighting each other with the same car, so it has been good to watch and I’m sure tomorrow will be very interesting until the end. Taka was also doing so well and he’s naturally very disappointed with what happened. It was only a little mistake, and I gave him a good hug when he got back to service; I retired from my home rally many times before I finally won it, so I know the feeling and it’s not nice, but I know that he won’t give up.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Overall it’s been a good day. This morning things were going well and working much better than yesterday. I was maybe driving more smoothly also, and we were able to close the gap to Seb. We still had good runs through the first two stages this afternoon, but then probably gave away more than I would have liked in the last two. It’s still pretty close though and all to play for going into tomorrow. It sounds as though the weather could be very difficult, so anything can happen and we’re definitely going to keep fighting.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s good that we are at least now back into the top 10 and scoring some points, so it’s been quite an OK day in that sense. Tomorrow we have the extra Sunday and Power Stage points available, and the rain looks to be coming which can make things more tricky. Not many drivers have experience with this year’s wet tyres in such conditions, so it will be something new. There’s a lot at stake in the championship so it will be an interesting day, and also my last day on asphalt with a rally car for now, so I’ll try to enjoy it.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I feel that I’ve done a good job this afternoon, but I could have done better this morning – I think that’s the summary of the day. In the end we cannot be unsatisfied with what we’ve done. Elfyn was driving very well with strong pace. In the morning we lost a bit too much ground, especially in the last stage of the loop, but after that we had a good response. The gaps were still incredibly small, but going into the last day in the lead can only be positive. The conditions will probably be extra challenging for everybody, and we will have to be on it straight away.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“This morning we were closing the gap to the lead, even though it didn’t feel so fast in the car. Then in the first stage of the afternoon, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I couldn’t get the car slowed enough for the narrow entrance to this arena section. I hit the barrier and it damaged the cooling and power steering systems. We tried what we could to fix the car; Aaron did an amazing job together with the information the team was giving us. We were able to finish the day, but lost too much time. Right now I just feel so sorry for the team and especially the fans who are supporting me.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I think it has been another solid day. We again had quite consistent stage times and some good sections on most of the stages. At the same time, there are some places where I feel I should be able to improve, but that’s normal. Overall I think I can be quite satisfied with the pace we have been doing. There’s still one day to go and I guess it will be tricky with the rain that is likely coming; let’s see together with the team how we approach it.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2h32m55.0s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +6.5s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +23.6s
4 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +45.4s
5 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m34.5s
6 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m39.6s
7 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +6m27.9s
8 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m40.6s
9 Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m54.9s
10 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m21.8s
22 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +34m31.7s
(Results as of 20:45 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
Sunday’s final leg takes place to the south-east near Okazaki, which hosts two passes of a super special and a tyre-fitting zone. These separate two runs over the Nukata and Lake Mikawako stages, with the second pass of the latter serving as the rally-ending Power Stage.
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