The hopes of Thierry Neuville to win the WRC title were reduced after experiencing a feeding problemwhile Elfyn Evans He becomes leader of the 2024 Rally Japan. The Belgian wins the first special of the day, and ranks second before a sudden loss of power hurts him, who will need only six points to clinch the world title .
The Welshman went from third position to the lead of the third stage, seven tenths ahead of Ott Tanakthe rival for the title, in the tire assembly area at midday, while the championship leader was third, forty seconds behind. Takamoto Katsuta He moved up to fourth position after suffering a puncture in the second special.
The leader of the day before, Adrien Fourmaux remains fifth, ahead Andreas Mikkelsenwhile Grégoire MunsterNikolai Gryazin, Sébastien Ogier and Sami Pajari complete the top ten. Friday's first stage was disastrous for Toyota, which suffered a serious setback in its attempt to close the fifteen-point gap that separates it from Hyundai in the fight for the manufacturers' title.
Sébastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta suffered punctures in the second specialthe Isegami tunnel, announced as the most difficult of the rally. The special, of a technical nature, was dry, with wet areas and a layer of leaves which made it particularly slippery and unpredictable, and the Frenchman stopped after eleven kilometers to change the left front wheel, which cost him more by two minutes, and dropped him very low in the rankings.
“The first few corners were very slippery and I was understeering,” he said.
The Japanese also didn't know why he had punctured, and managed to bring his GR Yaris to the finish of the stage with the left rear tire off the rimgiving up for a minute. Elfyn Evans was thus the only Toyota driver able to achieve a performance, as he achieved the third best time of the stage and placed third in the general classification.
However, The Hyundais of Thierry Neuville, championship leader, and Ott Tanak, rival in the fight, had no brakesand the Toyota drama has increased pressure on both. The Belgian, the first to hit the road, set the tone to win the stage with a second ahead of his teammate, but it was the latter who took the lead of the rally with half a second ahead .
“There were fewer retirements than expected, but I tried to have a clean race,” said Thierry Neuville.
The nature of the winding roads was such that WRC2 drivers Nikola Gryazin and title contender Sami Pajari managed to set the fourth and fifth fastest times respectively to place fifth and sixth overall. Adrien Fourmaux struggled to find grip in slippery conditionswhich cost the French driver almost a minute, who dropped to fourth place overall.
There was also drama for Andreas Mikkelsen, who he was surprised by the leaves and mud on the road and went straight into a left turnand the Norwegian lost almost a minute to the Belgian Toyota who rallied in the third stage, and the resurgent Sébastien Ogier, with motivation problems, won the stage by almost two seconds.
“I don't know what to do at the moment. No words, really, this section is not my section, in the forest, we had a puncture two years ago in the same sector, it's not easy to find motivation” says the Gaul.
Despite fighting understeer, Ott Tanak managed to extend his lead over Thierry Neuville to two seconds thanks to a much faster special than the previous one.. Given the considerable gap between the participants at the end of the first stage, Thierry Neuville adapted his speed to reduce the risks, but still ranked fourth ahead of Takamoto Katsuta.
Andreas Mikkelsen was sixth, ahead of Adrien Fourmaux, who revealed that he was losing his brakes towards the end of the event. However, the fight for the drivers' title took another turn in the final stage of the loop in Shinshiro, a completely new event this year.
Thierry Neuville was the victim of a mysterious mechanical problem on his i20 N which limited the power delivered by his car.. As a result, the Belgian lost over half a minute to title rival Ott Tanak, but only dropped to third place overall, which is still good for his title aspirations , but it was unclear whether the problem could be fixed in the next tire. mounting area.
Elfyn Evans took the stage victory and allowed Toyota to take the lead of the rally by seven tenths ahead of Ott Tanak. While, Nikola Gryazin leads WRC2 with more than half a minute ahead of Sami Pajariwho was lucky not to lose any more time with a puncture in the third stage, but the Finn was still on course to take the title after Gus Greensmith crashed while en route to second place.
A repeat of the loop awaits the crews before two passes on the Okazaki stage to conclude Friday's action.
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