Thierry Neuville has crashed just 100 meters into the sixth special stage of Rally Japan.
Neuville, who won the event last year, had been running second overall behind rally leader Elfyn Evans and had closed to just 10.5 seconds behind after outpacing his rival by a massive 15.5s on the first stage of the afternoon.
But the Belgian got it wrong at the very start of SS6, just running too hot into the first corner and hitting a tree.
He and Martijn Wydaeghe were unable to continue, releasing the pressure on Evans who is now over half a minute ahead of anybody else.
