For the first time since 2021, both the World Rally Championship’s drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles will be decided at the final round when Rally Japan stages the last event of the 2024 season this weekend.
This will be the championship’s third visit to the twisting Tarmac roads in the mountains above Toyota City, which have already proven to be incredibly demanding with challenging fall conditions thrown in.
While it’s a home round for Toyota, it is rival Hyundai that holds the cards in its favor. Either Thierry Neuville or Ott Tänak will be crowned its first ever drivers’ champion, and it leads the makes’ race too.
Here is all you need to know about the season finale.
Entry list
Total 44 crews
8 Rally1 crews
18 Rally2 crews (17 WRC2)
2 Rally3 crews (2 WRC3)
Rally1
M-Sport will run just two Rally1 cars this week with Toyota and Hyundai each bringing three
Among the eight Rally1 entries for Japan, Hyundai fields three as usual. All the focus from the outside will be on its two lead drivers, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, who are separated by 25 points at the top of the championship. As on every previous sealed-surface round this year, Andreas Mikkelsen will drive the third car, and has an important role to play to help the team clinch the manufacturers’ title while his team-mates duel over the drivers’ crown.
Hyundai has a lead of 15 points over Toyota, which also fields three cars: there is no Kalle Rovanperä, who has already contested the seven rounds he planned to do this year. Elfyn Evans, who led a Toyota 1-2-3 in Japan one year ago, and Sébastien Ogier line up alongside the local hero Takamoto Katsuta.
M-Sport enters two Ford Puma Rally1s for its full-season drivers Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster.
WRC2
Sami Pajari has a shot at the WRC2 title this week
The WRC2 title will also be settled in Japan, even though only one of the two contenders is present. Championship leader Oliver Solberg will be watching on from home, having completed his seven-round season back in Chile, while Sami Pajari returns to the category after two more outings in Rally1 machinery with a 15-point gap to close. A win or second-place finish would be enough for Toyota driver Pajari to become champion: if he finishes third, he loses out to Solberg on second-place countback.
Among those who could challenge Pajari for the top spots are Citroën driver Nikolay Gryazin, plus Škoda men Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Gus Greensmith – the latter of whom has openly expressed his ambition to help Toksport team-mate Solberg. Josh McErlean also makes a bonus outing in his Toksport Fabia but can’t score points.
There are 17 cars registered for WRC2 points in Japan, one more than at the Central European Rally, and eight of them are Toyota GR Yaris Rally2s. Their drivers include Jan Solans and Chris Ingram, who makes a first world-level appearance in the superbly Castrol-liveried car he used to become British champion.
Toyota’s Challenge Program duo Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure will also be ones to watch along with former Formula 1 driver Heikki Kovalainen, who is joined by fellow Japanese championship competitors Norihiko Katsuta – father of Takamoto – and one-time Production WRC runner-up Fumio Nutahara.
Former Toyota protégé Hiroki Arai will look to spoil the party in Kovalainen’s old R5-specifiaction Škoda that he took to this year’s Japanese title.
WRC3 (and national)
Just two cars are entered in WRC3. Diego Domínguez has already been crowned champion, and recently stepped up to a Toyota Rally2 car on Rally Catalunya, but returns to his Ford Fiesta Rally3 to target a fifth win in the category. He faces competition from Renault Clio driver Ghjuvanni Rossi, who adds to his starts in Monte Carlo, Portugal, Sardinia and Chile.
More eyes may be on the national category and the first WRC outing in almost 20 years for Didier Auriol. Thirty years to the week since he became world champion with Toyota, the Frenchman drives a production-spec GR Yaris. He will be competing with the Subaru WRX of local legend Toshi Arai.
Itinerary
The Rally Japan route is similar to previous years but with some notable tweaks. Toyota Stadium is once more the location for the service park and, inside, the superspecial stage that made its debut last year. It again runs as Thursday’s opener but this year does not get used again until Saturday night, before an additional run as Sunday’s penultimate test.
The Toyota Stadium superspecial returns to the itinerary this year
Friday is the longest day of the rally with 78.3 competitive miles and once more begins with the event’s longest stage, Isegami’s Tunnel. The 14.7-mile test, complete with its reportedly-haunted tunnel, has been the scene of much drama in the two previous editions. It is unchanged from last year, as is the Inabu stage that follows. The Shinshiro test that rounds out the loop bears no resemblance to stages previously run near the city of the same name.
The same three stages are repeated after a lunchtime tire-fitting zone near Inabu, and two passes of a remodeled super special in Okazaki complete the day before the return to Toyota City.
Saturday takes the rally north-east for another repeated loop of three stages, beginning with another brand-new test around Mount Kasagi. It’s followed by Nenoue Kougen and Ena, both unchanged from last year when they were run on Sunday. There’s another tire-fitting zone in Nakatsugawa separating the loops, while evening service in Toyota City precedes the stadium superspecial.
A new-look Sunday heads back to the south-east towards Shinshiro. Nukata reverts to its 2022 form, with a different first half to last year, while Lake Mikawako has been reversed with a new second half. The second passes of these two stages are separated by a final service and super special at Toyota Stadium, with Lake Mikawako hosting the powerstage.
