Rally Japan dawned wet on Sunday. Through it all sailed Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais to take the victory and narrow the championship points gap to three points over Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.
Ogier and Evans traded tenths of a second as they had on Saturday, but Ogier’s win on stage 16 – by one second – saw the pendulum swing in the Frenchman’s favour. The penultimate stage sealed the deal as Ogier added 3.2 seconds to his margin with just the Wolf Power Stage remaining.
Evans threw everything at the final stage but ultimately fell one tenth of a second short in the worst of the conditions.
Sami Pajari claimed his maiden Rally1 podium to complete a Toyota Gazoo Racing rout at home.
Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja ended in fourth place after winning the first stage of the day, the only bright spot in Hyundai’s day. Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria crashed in the first stage, and while damage was superficial, the accident stripped the right-hand bodywork clean off the car, and with no door, it was the end of the road.
Thierry Neuville’s miserable season continued unabated as he was forced to retire before reaching the first stage with malfunctioning windscreen wipers caused by an electrical fault.
Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka took a confidence boosting fifth place in the tricky conditions in their M-Sport Ford Puma, albeit it just under 6½ minutes behind Ogier.
Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunene completed their fightback from 23rd on Friday to take a few points and keep their championship hopes alive, albeit now just a mathematical chance.
Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmonson brought their Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 home in seventh overall as the fastest WRC2 car in the field. They were not nominated for points this time around.
Spaniards Alejandro Cachon and Borja Rozada claimed their maiden WRC2 victory in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 by 7.2 seconds from Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2. Jan Solans and Rodrigo Sanjuan rounded out the second-tier podium.
Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.
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