WRC Rally Japan: Elfyn Evans makes road position count to maintain lead

Toyota is in command of its home World Rally Championship round, locking out the top four positions, but home hero Takamoto Katsuta was frustrated in sixth

World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans made the most of his road position to maintain his Rally Japan lead over Oliver Solberg as Toyota locked out the top four on Friday.

Evans made the most of the cleaner roads and combined that with impressive pace to end Friday’s six stages with a 15.7s lead over Solberg. Despite being disadvantaged by starting sixth on the road, nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier ended the day in third, 17.1s adrift, while Sami Pajari climbed to fourth [+41.5s].

Evans was sitting fourth after the day’s opening stage, where overnight rain left damp patches under the trees complicating the tyre choice for crews. But the Welshman’s day turned in his favour thanks to a stunning time on the first pass of Isegami’s Tunnel, which vaulted Evans into a 6.4s lead over Solberg.

From there, the Welshman kept the rally under control. He added another stage win on the morning’s Inabu/Shitara test, then protected his margin across the afternoon repeat loop as conditions became drier but remained unpredictable in places.

“Road position. It is always road position,” said Evans when asked to explain his performance. “It has been an okay day for us overall. It has been relatively clean and we managed to keep a good rhythm, so other than that it has been okay.”

Solberg had made the perfect start by winning the opening stage of the day and later repeated that success on the afternoon pass, but lost time on stage three when he slowed to avoid a deer in the road. A late moment on the final stage went unpunished and he reached the overnight halt second overall.

After a perfect start, Oliver Solberg lost time

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“I'm a bit sad today with the animals [in SS3] and everything. Instead of being 16s behind it could have been 10s, but that's life,” said Solberg.

Last year’s winner Ogier had been frustrated by his road position after dropping 16.7s to Evans the morning pass of Isegami’s Tunnel. Ogier targeted a bigger push in the afternoon hoping a second pass through the stages would offer more of a level playing field in terms of conditions.

However, Ogier spent much of the day chasing a better feeling from his Toyota GR Yaris.

"Not ideal for sure. We were hoping for better. We did what we could. We still have to work to find the sweet spot in the car, I was fighting it all day,” said Ogier.

The most significant change on the leaderboard came in the fight for fourth. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville surprised himself with his morning pace in the dry/damp conditions on the soft tyre to hold the position going into the afternoon stages.

However, on bone dry stages, a move to the hard tyre triggered a downturn in confidence and performance as the 2024 world champion battled the front end of his i20 N. It resulted in the Belgian ceding fourth to Pajari, who ended a day by winning stage six, having battled to find consistent speed.

Takamoto Katsuta had a frustrating start to the rally

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“Once we are on the hard tyre the balance is gone,” said Neuville. “It is the same story with this car. This car is not meant to go fast in these conditions.”

Home hero Takamoto Katsuta endured a frustrating start to the rally he wants to win the most. The Japanese driver clipped a bank on a damp right-hander in the opening stage and picked up a left-rear puncture, then struggled for confidence through the morning before ending the day sixth overall, 1min 03.8s from the lead.

“It was one of the worst days I have had,” Katsuta said. “It is very bad and it was very frustrating. There are still two days to go.”

Adrien Fourmaux ended the day in seventh [+1m16.3s] after a frustrating Friday, while team-mate Hayden Paddon was eighth [+2m17.0].

Jon Armstrong headed the M-Sport-Ford contingent despite grazing a barrier and suffering an intercom issue. Team-mate Josh McErlean lost more than two and a half minutes when he stopped to change a front-right puncture on stage five.

The top 10 was completed by Alejandro Cachon who snatched the WRC2 lead by 8.3s from Nikolay Gryazin on the final stage of the day.

The rally continues on Saturday with the longest leg of the rally, comprising 120.22 competitive kilometres.