The World Rally Championship in Japan continues on Saturday with seven special stages.
The pursuit of Kalle Rovanperä started. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Japan World Cup Rally
The situation after the 8/20 special exam
1. Sébastien Ogier, Toyota 1.21.59.1
2. Elfyn Evans, Toyota +8.9 seconds
3. Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota +9.5
4. Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai +22.4
5. Sami Pajari, Toyota +24.3
6. Ott Tänak, Hyundai +1.20,7
7. Gréguire Munster, Ford +2.56,8
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The opening clip of the day lifted Kalle Rovanperän already to rank 13. However, the following rankings will no longer come for free, because the one above Gus Greensmith is 37.4 seconds away.
However, Rovanperä set out to reduce that lead with the 21-kilometer Ena special test.
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Saturday started with a 16-kilometer section of Obara.
It was only a little past seven in the morning in Japan, so the drivers’ level of alertness could not possibly be at its sharpest.
Rovanperä, who dropped to 17th place due to his contact with the railing on Friday, was the first driver to attack the route.
– Good conditions right from the morning. It was nice to drive. We’re trying to get up to speed and get back into the top ten. Let’s just drive briskly and see how high we go, Rovanperä said.
The reigning world champion by Thierry Neuville The Hyundai had a broken drive shaft already during the transition period. That’s why the Belgian drove through the entire special test on Sunday.
– I will probably go back to maintenance after this, Neuville said.
That would mean that Hyundai would drop ahead of Rovanperä in the overall standings.
Sami Pajari was briefly stuck in the base time of the clip. In the end, he was 1.6 seconds behind by Adrien Fourmaux speed.
– It didn’t go quite as well as I would have hoped. We just try to drive as well as we can, explained the Lahti native.