Rally Japan, Toyota overwhelming power: Evans leads on Ogier

The dominance of Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 at the Japan Rally, the last round of the 2023 World Rally Championship. With the “survivors” of the opposing manufacturers forced to lick their wounds from Friday’s grueling stage, the Japanese cars consolidated their place in the first three places in the overall ranking. Elfyn Evans is still firmly in the lead, with a clear advantage of one minute and fifteen seconds over Sébastien Ogier who seems to have recovered from the “touch” in the fifth special stage. Third place for Kalle Rovanpera, apparently satisfied with the world championship “encore” and not particularly aggressive in this seasonal epilogue. The Finn complains a delay of twenty-five seconds and six tenths on Ogier. Also noteworthy is the comeback of Takamoto Katsuta, who is now sixth with the fourth Yaris after the hard crash in yesterday’s “terrible” second special. It should be noted that the stage of Friday it also cost the father dearly Norihikoforced to stop after having opened a wheel of his Yaris Rally2 in the evening Super Special.

LAPPI EXCELLENT FOURTH

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After the Toyota Gazoo Racing “platoon”, the remaining standard bearers showed off Hyundai And Ford M-Sport. The balance sheet has been good so far Esa-Pekka Lappi who after having badly damaged his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in Chile and at the Central European Rally, is finding partial redemption occupying provisional fourth place. The “captain” of the Korean team is now cut out of all the games Thierry Neuville, restarted with the Super Rally but now relegated to the back of the group. As for Oct Tanakis in fifth position with one Ford Puma Rally1 which once again shows its limits. Even more unfortunate Adrien Fourmaux who was unable to restart for the second stage: the engine of his Puma suffered some damage after yesterday’s off-road accident.

MIKKELSEN ALWAYS HIGH, HEIKKI KO

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Even if overtaken by Lappi, Tanak and Katsuta, Andreas Mikkelsen is always in the top rankings with his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, occupying seventh place overall and the leadership in WRC 2. The ranking of the latter category is monopolized by Skoda, with Nikolay Gryazin second e Kajetan Kajetanowicz third. In the absolute ranking the “neutral” is ninth while the Pole completes the Top Ten. Also noteworthy is the excellent performance of Grégoire Munster, who with his Ford Fiesta Rally2 is eighth overall although “transparent” for the class rankings. In the WRC 2 Challenger Gryazin is firmly in command over Kajetanowicz, who benefits from the stop by Heikki Kovalainen due to problems with the transmission and is very close to the category title.

FLY THE “LITTLE” ARAI

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Of the Japanese team, note the excellent eleventh place overall Hiroki Arai with the “small” Peugeot 208 Rally4. Not at all upset by dad’s stop Toshihiro due to problems with the alternator of his Subaru Wrx, Arai is conducting an excellent race, cradling the dream of even win some overall points. Another Japanese who is behaving well is Osamu Fukunagawho with his Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo is twelfth overall and firm leader in WRC Masters Cup. With Miguel Diaz-Aboitiz delayed by an accident in last night’s Super Special, the Irishman is now trying to make Fukunaga’s life difficult Eamonn Boland, three minutes and six seconds behind in his Citroen C3 Rally2. In WRC 3, he continues his solitary march, not without difficulty Jason Bailey with his Ford Fiesta: today he ran into a three-minute penalty, dictated by the need to resolve some technical problems.

YOU ARE STILL SPECIAL

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Little time to rest for the protagonists of the Japan Rally: the restart is set for 07:05 on Sunday, when with us it will still be 11.05pm on Saturdaywith the first passage of Asahi Kougen. Others will follow five specials with the conclusion at 2.15pm local time, 06:15 with us. The streets of Asahi Kougen will still be the theater oflast Power Stage of 2023.