If Friday was frantic at Rally Japan, Saturday was somewhat sedate.
None of the title twists that lit up the first full day followed into the second, but nonetheless Saturday was still an important day as it reserved the first haul of points ahead of Super Sunday and the powerstage.
Crucially for both his own remote drivers’ title chances, but most pertinently Hyundai’s manufacturers’ cause, Ott Tänak tops the standings and, subject to successfully completing the Toyota Stadium superspecial, will record 18 points from the first part of the weekend.
But what is Thierry Neuville set to score? And how are Toyota’s diminishing championship hopes looking? Here’s what happened on Saturday at Rally Japan:
Neuville recovers to the points
Neuville managed to score some points and edge that bit closer to the drivers' title
After completing over half of Friday’s competitive mileage with a turbo-related problem, the overwhelming world championship favorite found himself down in 15th place and just under 1m45s shy of the points-paying places.
His mission on Saturday was therefore simple: climb ahead of as many Rally2 cars as possible.
Passing two on SS10 and another one (thanks to a stage win) on SS11, Neuville’s decisive move came on SS12 as he vaulted from 12th to ninth – albeit with the assistance of notional times (more on that below).
Once up to ninth, the only Rally2 cars ahead were Sami Pajari and Nikolay Gryazin. But Neuville’s advances were restricted by losing the bite in his brakes and therefore “all the confidence to slow down the car”.
Nevertheless, the Belgian overhauled Pajari on SS14 and Gryazin on SS15 (the final proper stage) to reserve himself a vital four championship points in seventh place.
That means that no matter how great Tänak’s performance has been (leading Evans by 36s), Neuville needs just two points from either Super Sunday or the powerstage to get the job done tomorrow.
“knowing that realistically P9 was possible, maybe P8, but deep into myself, I was hoping for P7,” Neuville told DirtFish.
“That was our target this morning, and that’s what we were calculating all the day through. But knowing that I was the only one who had a lot to lose, and all the others a lot to win only, and nothing to lose, yeah, I had to manage the risks and re-evaluate every time the situation. And that’s what we did.”
Toyota on the ropes
Toyota's manufacturers' championship chances are looking increasingly remote
Tänak has done the absolute perfect job in Japan so far. Topping Saturday applied the pressure on Neuville, and massively helped Hyundai fend off Toyota’s advances.
That means Sébastien Ogier’s remarkable effort to recover to third from his SS2 puncture was almost in vain.
Toyota managed to get two Yarises in the top three with Evans ahead of Ogier, but Tänak’s Hyundai blocked them from the position they needed most: first.
There is still the suite of points available to take from Sunday, meaning Toyota’s cause isn’t completely over. But it’s on the ropes.
As things stand, Hyundai is still 11 points ahead with just one day left to go this season.
Pajari still where he needs to be
Pajari is currently exactly where he needs to be to claim the WRC2 title
Jan Solans impressively mending his wounded Toyota, and Gus Greensmith spinning his Škoda and impressively flicking it back round a matter of moments later, was about as exciting as it got in WRC2 on Saturday.
That’s good news if you’re Sami Pajari; bad news if you’re Oliver Solberg.
Solberg currently leads the championship but a top-two finish in Japan would be enough for Pajari to take it from him. As it stands, Pajari is second – and avoided any of the puncture drama that struck him yesterday.
Stage canceled because of unauthorized minivan
A serious scenario unfolded at the start-line of SS12, the final stage of the morning loop, as an unauthorized vehicle entered the stage and forced it to be canceled.
Six cars managed to drive the Ena 1 test, but Elfyn Evans was faced with a minivan pointing towards him at the start-line and the organizers swiftly moved to scrap the stage for him and everybody behind.
“It all got handled well I think, the marshals acted accordingly, but unfortunately we didn’t get to do the stage,” Scott Martin told DirtFish.
Mikkelsen sacrificed
Mikkelsen only did half of Saturday's stages as Hyundai elected to retire him from the afternoon
After crashing out on Friday, Saturday was always going to be a fairly irrelevant day for Andreas Mikkelsen.
Neuville may have been ailing but he was Hyundai’s second-highest car, so the only influence Mikkelsen could realistically have (unless Neuville retired on Saturday) was on Sunday – both in the Super Sunday standings and on the powerstage.
Mikkelsen was due to run first on the road in the morning but checked out of service four minutes late to allow his title-chasing team-mate the best position on the road.
Hyundai then elected to retire Mikkelsen’s car from the afternoon loop to save it for Sunday – a move which could have backfired spectacularly had anything happened to either Neuville or Tänak.
“Whatever we do, we wouldn’t gain or lose manufacturers’ points,” Hyundai WRC program manager Christian Loriaux explained, “so effectively there’s no point running him this afternoon.
“It’s better for us to keep his car in good condition to be able to be the most competitive for Sunday.”
M-Sport’s fortunes improve
M-Sport was more on the money on day two
The mood in the white and blue corner of the service park was much higher than Friday.
The odd understeer struggles still existed, and Adrien Fourmaux did lose a position (no shame in that against Ogier). But his performance to fight the Toyotas, and fend off Takamoto Katsuta, was mighty.
Then team-mate Grégoire Munster had what he declared “his best day on Tarmac”, coming just three seconds away from the first stage win of his career as he posted the second-best time on SS10.
Although he didn’t trouble the top-three again, Munster was far closer to the leading pace than he has been on most other events – within 10s of the stage win on all six of the countryside stages.
