Sébastien Ogier leads Rally Japan from Elfyn Evans as their World Rally Championship title rival Kalle Rovanperä hit trouble.
Rovanperä had led the event overnight but, after falling to joint fourth place after the day’s opener, his rally curtailed on SS3 when a collision with an Armco barrier damaged his Toyota’s rear-left suspension and cost him over two minutes.
A strong repair job by Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen on the road section kept them in the game, but the Finnish pair leaked another two minutes on Isegami’s Tunnel to end the morning over five minutes down.
“We managed to do something, so obviously it’s good that we got through but we had to be slow.”
Asked what it means for his title chances, Rovanperä simply added: “We will see.”
His rivals Ogier and Evans had far better mornings – the duo lying first and second overall; split by just 1.0s after four stages.
Ogier remained ahead of Evans throughout, but the Welshman won the final stage of the morning to keep his team-mate under pressure.
Home driver Takamoto Katsuta is firmly in that victory fight too, trailing Ogier by just 1.7s, having led the way after the third test. Rovanperä’s mishap broke a dominant Toyota top-five lockout, with Sami Pajari holding fourth – 9.5s off the lead.
Hyundai’s two world champions Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville have struggled immensely for confidence and pace in their i20s; sixth-placed Tänak already 45.8s off the lead.
“[It’s been the] same all the morning, so let’s see what we can learn this lunchtime,” he remarked. “We need to see what the engineers think, I hope they see something.”
Neuville was tight-lipped at the end of SS3 but provided a little more information after SS4, suggesting he had an issue on top of his struggle.
“We have to go back to service and check,” said the outgoing world champion. “If everything is working like it should we could get a bit more pace, but not that much.”
Hyundai's speed has not been strong so far in Japan
Adrien Fourmaux however has managed to make the car work, lying in fifth overall and exactly half a minute ahead of Tänak. Changes made to the car’s setup after SS2 appeared to unlock more potential for the Frenchman.
“I really need to drive the car in one way to make it turn and make it efficient, so I really needed to change my driving,” he explained. “But still in the tricky conditions it’s edgy I would say.”
Josh McErlean was the only Rally1 driver to retire from the morning – the M-Sport driver crashing out heavily on SS3 after a 16G impact. Both he and co-driver Eoin Treacy are OK.
Team-mate Grégoire Munster successfully completed the morning but was frustrated by understeer to hold eighth, 1m22.3s off Ogier’s lead.
“The car is not turning… it’s how it is,” said a subdued and agitated Munster. “I’m sure the engineers and mechanics are trying their best to solve it, but there’s no magic solution so we’re struggling.”
