Oliver Solberg crashed out of second place of Rally Japan on the first stage of Saturday afternoon.
The Swede had narrowed rally leader Elfyn Evans’ advantage to 10.6s across the morning, having started the day 15.7s adrift.
He was two seconds ahead of Sébastien Ogier and four up on Evans on SS10 Mt Kasagi 2, but ran his Toyota wide in a tight left hander, pulled the handbrake and smacked a tree and damaged his rear-right suspension.
After showing strong speed but making yet another mistake, Toyota driver Ogier was far from impressed with his young team-mate.
Ogier said Solberg's crash was "unfortunate" but not a surprise
“It’s not a surprise,” he said at stage-end. “This morning I’ve seen the risk he’s taking is too high. What is the reason?”
Told he was stopped with damage to the car, Ogier added: “Unfortunately it’s not really a surprise, but it’s a shame.”
Ogier does move up to second place as a result of Solberg’s error however, beating Evans by 5.5s on the stage.
“We lost a bit of time having to pass him [Solberg] safely,” Evans reasoned.
Evans since extended his lead to exactly 20.0s after SS12.
Asked to comment on Ogier’s stage-end reaction, and if Solberg was pushing too hard, Toyota sporting director Kaj Lindström said: “I think Séb was the best one to tell, he saw the lines behind him. But it’s a very unfortunate situation and it looks like he cannot continue today. So that’s it.”
Addressing Ogier’s comments back at the service park, Solberg said: “Of course we are pushing, we are fighting for seconds in the top three of course, but it was nothing different to any other stage that I drove in.”
