Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin delivered a flawless performance and enjoyed the best road position on the opening day of FORUM8 Rally Japan, round seven of the FIA World Rally Championship, ending the first day’s action with a 15.7 second lead over teammates Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson.
Conditions were tricky in the morning loop after overnight rain left damp patches under the forest canopy, making the correct tyre choice difficult, but the roads dried out quickly and the afternoon loop was completely dry.
“Road position. It is always road position,” Evans said after the final stage. “It has been an okay day for us overall. It has been relatively clean, and we managed to keep a good rhythm, so other than that it has been okay.”
Solberg won the opening stage before Evans blitzed the next two tests, ending the morning loop with 17.7 seconds in hand over his young rival, who added a stage win on SS4, while Evans set the scratch time on stage five. The Swede lost time on SS3 when he slowed to avoid a deer on the road and got away with a moment on the final stage when he nipped a barrier.
Sebastien Ogier and Vincent Landais are third overall after a consistent day but upped their pace in the afternoon loop to close to within 1.4 seconds of Solberg. After stage two, the nine-time WRC Champion was ten seconds adrift, before cutting his deficit to 0.5 seconds only for it to open up again. The Frenchman was frustrated by his road position, though. “Not ideal for sure,” Ogier said. “We were hoping for better. We did what we could. We still have to work to find the sweet spot in the car. I was fighting it all day.”
Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen completed the Toyota rout holding fourth overall, helped by a stage win on the final test of the day, having bumped Thierry Neuville down a position after stage five.
Hyundai expected a tough outing on the final tarmac event of the season, and so it proved; Rally Portugal winners Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe led the charge battling with understeer throughout the six tests. “Once we are on the hard tyre the balance is gone,” said Neuville. “It is the same story with this car. This car is not meant to go fast in these conditions.”
Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston are sixth overall after clipping a kerb in the first stage which led to a puncture. A small off in stage three saw the Japanese hero drop more time, leaving the double WRC winner with a mountain to climb to reel in the leader who is over a minute ahead. “It was one of the worst days I have had,” Katsuta said. “It is very bad and it was very frustrating. There are still two days to go.”
Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria are seventh, with Hayden Paddon and John Kennard in eighth overall for Hyundai.
Jon Armstrong and Shayne Byrne are ninth for M-Sport Ford on the first visit to Japan and did well considering an intercom problem on the final test. Their sophomore teammates Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy are 15th in the overall standings after losing more than two and half minutes when they had to stop to change a front right puncture in SS5.
Alejandro Cachón completes the top 10 overall and leads WRC2 by 8.3sec from Nikolay Gryazin after a day-long fight between the pair. Gryazin had reclaimed the category lead on the second pass of Isegami’s Tunnel, but Cachón moved back ahead on the final stage of the day.
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