Evans puts Toyota on brink of first WRC Rally Japan victory

Elfyn Evans (above) is poised to deliver Toyota Gazoo Racing its first home WRC after maintaining a commanding lead over teammate Sebastien Ogier on Rally Japan’s penultimate leg. 

The early lead built by Evans when he dominated Friday’s soaking-wet leg of the FIA World Rally Championship’s all-asphalt finale meant he could avoid taking unnecessary risks on the drier, but still treacherously slippery, roads faced on Saturday. It even began to snow at one point late in the day but, to the competitors’ relief, the shower was short lived. 

Evans’ vigilant approach in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 allowed Ogier to slash his lead by almost 40 seconds over the course of the day, but the Welshman still has 1m15.0s in hand over the eight-time WRC champ heading into Sunday’s six-stage final leg.

Taking a victory here would be sweet revenge for the 34-year-old Evans after wheel damage in 2022 gifted Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville the victory. Neuville crashed on Friday, restarted the Saturday leg in his repaired i20 N Rally1, but is no longer in contention.

“It’s been pretty OK,” said Evans. “Getting caught in some rain in the penultimate stage was not so nice, and we were maybe too careful in some places, but it was always going to be a bit tricky to judge our speed today with such a big gap.”

Newly-crowned WRC champ Kalle Rovanpera completed a GR Yaris-dominated overnight top three, trailing Ogier by 25.6s at the end of Saturday’s leg. The 23-year-old Finn should have nothing to worry about on Sunday as his closest challenger, Esapekka Lappi, languishes more than one minute behind him in his Hyundai.

Having been hindered by technical gremlins on Friday, Ott Tanak clawed himself and his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 up the leaderboard to reach the overnight halt in fifth overall. But the Estonian, driving his last rally for M-Sport before returning to Hyundai, will be keeping a keen eye on his rear-view mirrors, with Takamoto Katsuta only 14.9s behind.

Ott Tanak has clawed his way to fifth in his final rally in an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. M Sport photo