Ott Tanak raised their slim hopes in the World Rally Championship with a dominant desire to direct the Rally Japan Friday after electrical problem cost title favorite Thierry Neuville.
The pilot of Hyundai successfully completed the day's eight special stages to open up a lead of 20''9 over Elfyn Evansof Toyota, with Adrien Fourmauxof M-Sportthird in 1:53.9s.
Tanak needed his teammate Neuville to wrestle in Japan to have a chance at the title, as Neuville only needs six points to win his first world championship. His hopes of the coronation were strengthened during the fourth stage when the i20N de Neuville suddenly lost all power, forcing the car to continue through the stages in “road mode”.
As a result, Neuville finished the day outside the points qualifying positions, in 15th place, more than seven minutes (7:41.3) behind Tanak.
Toyota's attempt to overtake Hyundai in the fight for the manufacturers' title has been hit by punctures Takamoto Katsuta And Sébastien Ogier on Friday morning. Both recovered and placed fourth [+1:54.0s] and fifth [+2:15.6s]while Grégoire Munsterfrom M-Sport, survived a spin on stage four and placed sixth [+2:37.4s].
Unfortunately for Neuville, the power problem could not be resolved during the fitting of the midday tires. This meant that the title favorite would waste time throughout the afternoon driving his i20 N as best he could through the various stages.
Neuville lost 2'30''8 to Tanak, his rival for the title, and fell to ninth place overall after SS5, the second passage through the Isegami tunnel.
“We failed to resolve the problem. We will continue to fight and the hard work of the year has value now, a 25-point lead has value now,” said a dejected Neuville.
On the contrary, his teammate Tanak produced an inspired performance to win this stage, overtake Evans and take the lead of the rally.
The Estonian was 14.4s quicker than Evans, who felt he had made the wrong tire choice, having selected a pack of three hard and three soft tires.
Meanwhile, Ogier, recovered after his puncture in the same morning special, became Tanak's closest rival, 6.2 seconds behind the Hyundai driver.
Neuville's problem puts Toyota's Katsuta in third place overall, ahead of M-Sport-Ford's Fourmaux and Munster.
Sixth-placed Mikkelsen survived an early morning crash down an embankment, but this time he was unable to recover from an accident that caused his i20 N to crash into a tree. With the damaged car partially blocking the road, the fifth stage was suspended with red flag to allow removal of the i20 N.
Tanak, who like Neuville had opted for a spare wheel, continued his attack to win the sixth stage and open a lead of 20”4 over Evans.
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
“I didn't feel too bad there, maybe I'm driving too much or something. It could be that Tanak is driving hard, but maybe he's driving better,” said Evans, who was 6.7 seconds slower than Tanak.
Once again Ogier came closest to Tanak's pace, and the eight-time world champion managed to overtake Munster and move into fifth overall.
Katsuta played with his tire choice in anticipation of rain which didn't come, but his pace was enough to keep Fourmaux at bay in the fight for third place.
Neuville's problems caused him to lose another 2'08″ before losing 1'50″6 in the seventh special (Shinshiro, 17.41 km) – the traditional last stage of the loop as the light began to fade .
A delay in the program following Mikkelsen's problem in the fifth stage made the forest sections of the stage particularly dark and difficult to navigate.
Evans was best able to handle the conditions and the Toyota driver took 0.4 seconds from Tanak to win the stage and cut the Hyundai driver's lead to 20.0 seconds. His teammate, Ogier, also suffered from the lack of visibility to set the third best time.
However, the right decision to install lights on both Ford Puma M-Sports in the area of tire fitting has paid off. Helped by better visibility, Fourmaux set a devilish pace to overtake Katsuta and place third overall by 0.8s.
Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Katsuta led Tanak by six tenths on the first pass of the 2.54km Okazaki Super Special which marked stage eight. Incredibly, Katsuta, Fourmaux and Evans set identical best times on the second pass (stage nine), and the former is just 0.1 seconds behind Fourmaux in the fight for third overall.
In WRC2, Sami Pajari maintained the title course by occupying second place in its category and eighth overall, although 1'13''5 behind the rally leader in WRC2, Nikolai Gryazinseventh overall.
The rally continues on Saturday with seven stages, of which 103.87 kilometers are part of the competition.
General classification WRC Rally Japan 2024