Kalle Rovanperä seized the overnight lead of Rally Japan after Thursday’s short opening stage.
The 1.7-mile Kuragaike Park test is not completely typical of what to expect for the rest of the weekend, but the drivers all tackled it earlier on Thursday as shakedown so were very familiar with the stretch of road.
Elfyn Evans set the pace on shakedown with a 2m13.8s, but it was Toyota team-mate Rovanperä who topped the timesheets when it counted – going 6.3s quicker than the best shakedown time.
That was despite the Finn not having the best feeling with his GR Yaris Rally1.
“Let’s hope tomorrow is a bit better,” he said. “It should be a bit more open and a better feeling with the car – let’s see.
Ott Tänak was second quickest, 0.1s off the lead as the entire top-eight was covered by just a second.
“I wish [we have this speed all weekend]!” said Tänak. “Unfortunately it’s just a Mickey Mouse – but let’s see what’s coming, we find out tomorrow. Demanding stages are coming, you need to be really switched on here.”
Home hero Takamoto Katsuta is third overnight, 0.3s behind Rovanperä with title contenders Sébastien Ogier fourth and Elfyn Evans sixth – split by the other Toyota of Sami Pajari.
Katsuta smiled: “It’s going to be a long weekend as always so I need to have a good breakfast tomorrow! I never feel comfortable on this stage, but time is OK. I’ll try my best to get a good result.”
Adrien Fourmaux shared the sixth-best time with Evans, 0.8s off Rovanperä’s effort, with Thierry Neuville another 0.2s in arrears.
Grégoire Munster was the fastest M-Sport Puma Rally1, with Oliver Solberg muscling his way into 10th overall – 0.1s quicker than Josh McErlean.
Alejandro Cachón established an early lead in WRC2, but it’s a slender lead with Nikolay Gryazin’s Škoda just 0.1s behind the Spaniard’s Toyota. The non-points-scoring Solberg beat Cachón by 0.3s.
