With both World Rally Championship titles still on the line, this year’s Rally Japan was always going to be intriguing. But did anyone really think it would be quite this dramatic?
After Thursday’s opening superspecial at the Toyota Stadium – which Adrien Fourmaux won to lead a WRC round for the first time – Friday threw eight stages at the crews; six out in the countryside and two runs of the Okazaki superspecial stage.
Ott Tänak leads the rally – which is exactly what he needs to do for his fading championship hopes – with Elfyn Evans in second. But perhaps they can no longer be considered fading, given the tale of title favorite Thierry Neuville’s day!
Here’s what happened on Friday in Japan:
Toyota’s hopes (initially) deflated
Friday's opening stage looked to have sunk Toyota's hopes
In need of a big result to try and overturn its 15-point deficit to Hyundai in the manufacturers’ championship, the last thing Toyota needed was for Sébastien Ogier to pick up a puncture on Friday’s opening Isegami’s Tunnel test.
What it really, really didn’t need was Takamoto Katsuta to knock a rear tire off the rim.
Ogier lost two minutes after stopping to change, Katsuta lost half that without the need for a stop but both GR Yaris Rally1s plummeted down the leaderboard like a stone.
Just like at last year’s Central European Rally where an early puncture ruined his rally, Ogier confessed to losing some motivation: “I was really struggling to find the concentration and the motivation in this moment,” he revealed to DirtFish. “I was really down to be honest.”
All while the two leading Hyundais were running away at the front.
Neuville in major trouble
Neuville faced questions he didn't have an answer to over his ill i20
But how fortunes can, and would, change. Two stages on from it looking so good, Hyundai’s world unravelled. Specifically, Thierry Neuville’s.
Opting to check his pace on Friday’s second test after he, Tänak and Elfyn Evans broke clear from the rest, Neuville was slow but not out of choice on SS4 – his i20 developing some kind of power issue.
At the same time, Evans stole the rally lead from Tänak and the recovering Katsuta nicked fourth place from M-Sport’s Fourmaux.
No mid-day service, and instead just a remote tire fitting zone, upped the tension for the supposed world champion in-waiting. And agonizingly, the problem could not be solved.
That meant the Belgian drove the rest of the day with an ill Hyundai, losing seven minutes and, crucially, outside the top 10 points-paying positions.
Six points from Sunday (from either Super Sunday or powerstage) would still guarantee him the championship – and points from Saturday’s classification don’t look totally out of reach provided the car is fixed.
All is therefore not lost, but things are far nervier than anyone could genuinely have expected. His gratitude for the 25-point lead he’s built up across the season was obvious.
There was no glee from Tänak though, despite streaking 20s clear of Evans in the rally lead: “My target for the weekend was the manufacturers’ [championship],” he said. “This doesn’t help.”
Mikkelsen crashes out
Mikkelsen got it wrong in the afternoon and wounded Hyundai's title hopes
If Neuville’s technical didn’t help, how can we describe Andreas Mikkelsen’s accident on the first stage after the tire fitting zone?
Lying sixth and needing to push harder with Neuville ailing and unable to take the fight to Toyota, Mikkelsen’s splits were looking encouraging (quicker than Evans) on Isegami’s Tunnel 2.
But getting it wrong under braking through a typically narrow section, the Norwegian’s i20 slithered down the road and hit a tree head-on. Retirement from the day was the inevitable outcome.
If there’s a silver lining to be found, Mikkelsen’s Rally1 future wasn’t looking the rosiest anyway.
Greensmith misses chance to help Solberg
Greensmith's plan this weekend has been to help Solberg if he can, but he missed his chance
As early as the conclusion of last September’s Rally Chile when Oliver Solberg’s WRC2 title hopes took a significant knock, Toksport team-mate Gus Greensmith had promised to do his bit to help against Sami Pajari in Japan.
With first or second place at the season finale enough for Pajari to grab the title from Solberg’s grasp, Greensmith’s plan was to play the disruptor role.
But when the moment came, Greensmith couldn’t capitalize.
A front-left puncture on SS3 cost Pajari 40s and left him vulnerable for attack. Greensmith was his closest pursuer, but the Škoda locked the rears and smacked a bank in a 7G impact.
The Briton was able to continue, but Pajari was off the hook in second and on course for the title. Nikolay Gryazin has dominated the category, leading Pajari by north of a minute.
M-Sport suffers handling struggles
The Pumas haven't turned in like the drivers wanted
The forgotten team of the Rally1 class given the big fight for the manufacturers’ title between the others, M-Sport Ford had the opportunity to spring a surprise in Japan.
But thus far, it hasn’t fully gone to plan.
While Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster were immune to the issues that blighted others, both were left wanting in terms of ultimate pace.
“The car doesn’t rotate in slow corners, so we definitely need to find a way to turn the car,” Fourmaux explained. “We knew before the rally it’s not the best rally for the Puma, but we need to find a way to improve that.”
Fourmaux also suffered a brake problem with the pedal losing bite, which was put down to a broken cooling pipe.
Grégoire Munster was also “struggling with the front of the car, understeer” which “is not ideal on such twisty stages”.
It did at least get better for the afternoon with Fourmaux “sacrificed the rear but at least get more front” by stiffening the anti-roll bar and raising the ride height at the rear.
And there was late delight for Fourmaux as M-Sport made the cunning decision to fit a lightbar to his Puma in the TFZ, which with visibility diminishing paid dividends as he stole third place from Katsuta on SS7.
After the superspecials just 0.1s split them overall, with Ogier lying fifth and Munster sixth.
