– Toyota celebrates a show of strength at the home game in Japan and secures the first four places. Elfyn Evans crowns himself the record winner of the event with a flawless performance. It was the last rally of the Rally1 era on asphalt. With this success, Evans extends his lead in the World Championship to 20 points ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota; 4th). (Results)
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Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin remained calm on the 20 demanding asphalt stages. The Welshman secured his third victory at the Rally Japan – a new record – and relegated reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) to second place with a 12.8-second lead.
Evans had taken the lead already on Friday and did not give it up until the end. The surprisingly wet conditions on Friday morning and the high tire wear posed challenges for the drivers, but the Welshman was always in control.
“What a great weekend. A huge thanks to the team, the car was once again fantastic on asphalt. There is still a long way to go until the title, it is too early to talk about that. We just have to enjoy this victory now,” summarizes a satisfied Evans at the finish.
Solberg crashes but saves Sunday
After Oliver Solberg (Toyota; 29th) put massive pressure on the leader on Saturday morning and temporarily reduced the gap to 10.6 seconds, his dreams of victory were shattered on the tenth special stage. An unfortunate impact with a post irreparably destroyed the right rear suspension of his GR Yaris.
On Sunday, however, the Swede made an impressive comeback: He maximized damage control and confidently secured the 10 bonus points for the win in the Super-Sunday classification as well as on the Powerstage.
Ogier inherited second place due to Solberg’s retirement. The reigning world champion was still struggling with his starting position as sixth in the championship on Friday. In asphalt rallies, an early starting position is especially advantageous in wet conditions because every passing car throws more dirt onto the road.
But even when the starting position was no longer a disadvantage in the following days, Ogier was never able to put Evans under pressure. He never found the right setup for the hard Hankook tires to be able to do anything towards victory on the remaining stages.
Toyota dominates, Hyundai falters
Behind the leading duo, Sami Pajari (Toyota; 3rd) and local hero Katsuta completed the fourfold triumph for Toyota. Pajari found the decisive pace on Saturday afternoon and celebrated his fifth podium of the season.
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Katsuta experienced a true nightmare on the opening day. Already on the first stage of the rally, he slid off and suffered a tire damage. “It was the worst day of the season so far. Everything just went wrong,” he cursed deeply disappointed on Friday evening. On Saturday and Sunday, only the comeback remained, which pushed the local hero up to fourth place.
In the Hyundai camp, which was again completely powerless against Toyota on asphalt, a mixed picture emerged. Adrien Fourmaux benefited later from his aggressive dry setup and was the best Hyundai driver in fifth place.
For Thierry Neuville (Hyundai; 6th), however, the weekend turned into a test of patience. After the Belgian surprisingly kept up well on the wet track, he lacked any confidence in the hard tires on the drying asphalt.
A handbrake defect on Saturday and a car that Neuville described as “undrivable” on dry asphalt on Sunday pushed the 2024 world champion back to sixth place. Guest starter Hayden Paddon finished his solid asphalt outing in the third Hyundai in seventh place.
WRC2 drama: Another win for Lancia
The best M-Sport driver was Jon Armstrong in eighth place, who survived both a slight guardrail contact on Saturday and bizarre radio problems caused by sweat in the intercom. His teammate Josh McErlean completed the top 10 after a wheel change on SS5 cost him over two minutes.
In WRC2, the decision came only in the last meters: Nikolay Gryazin (Lancia; 9th) secured the class win in a real thriller after his toughest pursuer Alejandro Cachon (Toyota; 11th) spun off the road while trying to close a narrow 2.8-second gap. However, he saved second place in the class.
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After the last rally under the current Rally1 regulations is over, the Rally World Championship (WRC) will focus exclusively on gravel in the second half of the season. From June 25 to 28, the heat battle in Greece is on the program.
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