Elfyn Evans will carry a 17.8-second lead into the final day of FORUM8 Rally Japan after a dramatic Saturday which saw Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Oliver Solberg crash out of victory contention.
Evans began the longest leg of the rally with a 15.7-second advantage over Solberg, only for the Swede to apply pressure across the morning and reduce the margin to 10.6 seconds by midday.
But Solberg’s challenge ended on the afternoon’s opening Mt. Kasagi stage when he slid wide at a left-hander and struck a tree with the right-rear of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
His retirement promoted Sébastien Ogier to second, with Sami Pajari and Takamoto Katsuta completing a Toyota top four at the end of Saturday’s 120.22 competitive kilometres.
Evans admitted he lost time passing Solberg’s stricken car on SS10, but the Welshman remained composed across a punishing afternoon where rising temperatures and tyre wear became increasingly difficult to manage.
He responded strongly on the second pass of Ena, going 3.1 seconds faster than Ogier, before adding another stage win on Obara to rebuild his lead to 20.0 seconds. Two runs through the Fujioka super special trimmed that gap slightly before the overnight halt.
“No way [is it under control],” said Evans after Ena. “There is far too much driving to do. It can always be better clearly.”
His final-stage run was not entirely without drama. Evans ran wide at a left-hander and came close to an Armco barrier, but escaped without damage.
“There was not a lot of room to spare there,” he said. “Obviously we need to carry on the same way, that’s all. Big day tomorrow.”
Solberg had been the story of the morning. He won Obara, lost time to Evans on Ena, then hit back on Mt. Kasagi to cut the lead to 10.6 seconds.
That pace came at a cost. Ogier suggested Solberg’s level of risk had been high, but the nine-time world champion was still frustrated not to be closer to Evans after another day of searching for feeling.
“It’s not what we were hoping,” Ogier said at the finish. “We came here to fight for the win and we’re not fighting. We had a similar rally to Elfyn, except for that one stage [Isegami’s Tunnel 1 on Friday]. It was tough and after that I never had the pace to fight back.”
Pajari strengthened his hold on third with an impressive afternoon. The Finn won both passes of the Fujioka super special and was fastest on Ena 2, ending the day 44.4 seconds from Evans and 26.9 seconds clear of Katsuta.
“I’m very pleased with the afternoon loop in general,” Pajari said. “I was hoping to find more pace and that’s exactly what we did. Taking a couple of stage wins, from that side it’s really okay.”
Katsuta also enjoyed a much stronger Saturday after his frustrating opening day. The Japanese driver moved ahead of Thierry Neuville in the morning and continued to edge closer to Pajari during the afternoon, although he admitted a podium push would require extra risk.
“I’m the same person, the same car,” Katsuta said. “Just a reset – that’s all.”
Adrien Fourmaux ended the day fifth as the leading Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team driver, 2 minutes and 05.2 seconds from the lead. Teammate Neuville dropped to sixth after struggling with car balance and an intermittent handbrake problem through the day.
“Despite it being a difficult day we had some fun, pushing hard,” Neuville said. “We never found anything to make it work. Struggling with the feeling, feedback and balance.”
Hayden Paddon completed the day seventh in the third Hyundai, ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong, who reported improved confidence as the day progressed. Nikolay Gryazin holds ninth overall and leads WRC2 by 5.7 seconds from Alejandro Cachón after another close day-long battle between the pair.
