Elfyn Evans leads a TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 1-2-3-4 after a strong performance on the opening day of Rally Japan.
After a ceremonial start launched the rally at Nagoya Castle on Thursday evening, the competitive action began with two loops of stages in the forest-covered mountains to the east of Toyota City.
The loop began with the all-new Asuke stage, where Oliver Solberg was fastest to claim the early lead ahead of team-mates Sami Pajari and Sébastien Ogier. Evans was fourth-fastest there but then went quickest in the infamous Isegami’s Tunnel test by 7.5 seconds to leap into the lead. He was also fastest in the subsequent Inabu/Shitara stage to end the morning with an advantage of 17.7s over Solberg, with Ogier just half a second further back in third.
Solberg was fastest again in the afternoon’s second pass of Asuke but Evans was untouchable once more in Isegami’s Tunnel, and ended the day with his lead standing at 15.7s. Solberg and Ogier remain closely matched in second and third overall, separated by just 1.4s.
After taking fourth overall on the previous test, Pajari scored a stage win in Inabu/Shitara 2 to round out the day, while home hero Takamoto Katsuta closed to within 5.6s of fifth-placed Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
GR Yaris Rally2 driver Alejandro Cachón took the lead of the WRC2 category – and 10th overall – in the day’s final stage, while TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto runs third in the class on his home roads.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s been a great first day here at Rally Japan. Even though we’re here entering summertime rather than in the autumn, the conditions have still been tricky today as there was rain overnight and there was moisture on the roads under the trees. We saw some quite big time gaps in SS2, with a very strong time from Elfyn, and some moments for some drivers, but all of our guys are still running and towards the top of the leaderboard so it’s been almost perfect. Of course, Taka had hoped to make a better start, but home rallies are often the most difficult – for example, Juha Kankkunen and Kalle Rovanperä were multiple world champions before they won Rally Finland – and I’ve told him just try to relax and enjoy the driving, and then the confidence and the speed will come.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Today has been a good first day of the rally for us. It was a tricky start this morning with very changeable conditions, and a lot of damp and slippery places under the trees. It was very difficult to read those grip changes, but we seemed to find our way through that well with a good rhythm through the morning loop. In the afternoon the conditions were drier, and the guys behind us were coming on strong, so we know that we’re going to need to be on our best for the rest of the weekend to try and retain our position.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“It has been an OK start to the rally for us but not completely ideal, we would have hoped for better. I haven’t yet found the sweet spot with the car so I was not able to push quite as much as I would like to. We still have some work to do tonight to make it even better and find a little more speed – it’s only little things as the time gaps have generally been very small, except for Isegami’s Tunnel on the first pass where we lost quite a bit of time. Elfyn has been very strong today, so it’s quite a gap to the lead, but we will keep pushing.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“Today has been a good day overall. For my first time on these stages with his car, I am quite happy with our pace and we’ve been able to fight with our team-mates on every stage. We did have to slow down to avoid some animals in the third stage this morning and we lost quite a few seconds there, but otherwise all has been good and I think we were the quickest across the afternoon. There’s still a long way to go but we will keep pushing and doing our best.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Today did not go as smoothly as I would have hoped. The conditions were very challenging and I found it really difficult to understand where the damp and slippery places were. Unfortunately we picked up a puncture in the first stage of the day and then had to use a hard tyre in the wet conditions. This afternoon I tried my best to take back some time and positions, though our tyre strategy didn’t quite work out. There’s still two days to go and I won’t give up, and I will just try to keep driving well for all the fans who are supporting us.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Today has been surprisingly tricky; especially this morning when the conditions were very slippery. The time in the first stage was actually quite good, but then I struggled to find the pace that I would have hoped for. This continued a bit into the afternoon, but on the last stage of the day we were able to take a stage win and the car felt really good to drive, so I hope we’ve found the correct way to go forward into tomorrow. It’s still early in the rally and we just need to keep pushing.”
End of day one (Friday):
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 1h13m07.0s
2 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +15.7s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +17.1s
4 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +41.5s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +58.2s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m03.8s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m16.3s
8 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m17.0s
9 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m40.9s
10 Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3m26.6s
(Results as of 17:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally, made up of eight stages and 120.22 competitive kilometres. It takes crews north-east for a trio of tests which will then be repeated in the reverse order after a mid-day tyre-fitting zone at Enakyo Park. Two passes of a new super special stage at Fujioka round out the day.
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