World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans topped the Rally Japan shakedown stage in a Toyota 1-2-3.
Leading the standings by 13 points ahead of this week’s penultimate round of the season, Evans has won the last two editions of Rally Japan and hasn’t been off the podium in the last eight WRC events on Tarmac.
He was the first driver to take on the 1.75-mile Kuragaike Park test and his effort of 2m13.8s was never bettered throughout the entire shakedown session.
Home hero Takamoto Katsuta was his nearest rival, but 0.6s further back.
Home hero Katsuta was second quickest on shakedown
Evans said: “Like always it’s a tricky weekend – very technical, very twisty so we need to be pretty accurate in the driving. The stages look nice so we’re looking forward to it.”
Rovanperä and Ogier start Rally Japan tied on 234 points, but Ogier is ahead in the championship – and the running order – courtesy of a greater number of wins this season.
The Finn however, who won the previous event in CER, beat Ogier by 0.3s on shakedown. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux split the pair, a tenth up on Ogier.
“It’s obviously a tight fight going on,” said Rovanperä, “[but it’s] nice to be back in Japan. The shakedown is reminding [me] that it’s going to be a tricky weekend – it’s not easy here, the grip is always changing and the stages are narrow.”
Ogier meanwhile was defiant in his stance: “It’s quite simple: we need to score more [points] than him (Evans). That’s the plan of the weekend.”
Sami Pajari was sixth fastest and just a tenth down on Ogier in the fifth of the Toyotas, revelling in the support of being a Toyota driver in Japan, with another tenth in hand over Ott Tänak.
Mood wasn’t high for either of Hyundai’s world champions though, as despite retaining a mathematical shot at a second world title, Tänak has effectively written off his chances.
And outgoing world champion Thierry Neuville was 0.7s off his team-mate to go eighth quickest on shakedown, and was unclear on what to expect from the weekend ahead.
“Obviously we are not in the same scenario as we were last year [when we won the title here],” he said. “We will have a rally where we want to enjoy and see what we can do.
“[The] target is to work on the car and get a bit more of an understanding if we can. No pressure – just getting through and we’ll see at the end.”
Josh McErlean was the best of the M-Sport Pumas on shakedown, beating team-mate Grégoire Munster by 0.9s.
On his first competitive visit to Japan, WRC2 champion Oliver Solberg was the fastest Rally2 driver by over a second on shakedown, but of those contesting WRC2 points this weekend it was Nikolay Gryazin who set the pace in his Škoda.
Rally Japan officially gets underway on Thursday afternoon with SS1, an exact repeat of the Kuragaike Park shakedown test. It commences at 4.05pm local time.
