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The first full day of the penultimate rally of this season with 111km’s over six stages. The first stage of the rally was on the previous day with Kalle holding the lead from Ott and Takamoto. The top eight was also covered by one second with the championship leaders just eight tenths of a second from the rally leaders.

 

First up was SS2 Inabu / Shitara 1 – 17.08 km and Seb made a great start to the first full day of action setting the fastest time from Takamoto and Elfyn. The pace that the three of them set meant that Seb moved up three positions and into the lead from Takamoto and Elfyn who was third. Just 3.1 seconds covered them all. Kalle was the big loser in this one falling to fifth position, the last of the five Toyota crews.

 

Into SS3 Shinshiro 1 – 17.41 km and Takamoto was fastest in this one from Elfyn and Seb and took the lead from Seb whilst Elfyn remained in third and 3.1 from the new leader. Ironically the Welshman was closer to Seb after going half a second faster, but the new overall leader had the same advantage over third place. Adrien was the best placed of the three Hyundai crews holding fifth place. The Frenchman had gained one position after Kalle’s mistake in the stage which left him with broken rear left suspension. The Finn last almost two and a half minutes as he limped his damaged Yaris to the end of the stage. Elsewhere there was bigger drama for Josh in his Puma who went off the road at around the middle of the stage. The damage would mean that he and Eoin would retire from the rally.

The final morning stage then, SS4 Isegami’s Tunnel 1 – 19.66 km which was run in the opposite direction from the previous years and Elfyn was fastest this time from Seb and Takamoto. They both leapfrogged the Japanese driver with Seb going back into the lead from Elfyn. Incredibly the gap between the three of them was now just 1.7 seconds. Adrien closed the gap to Sami for fourth overall by just over two seconds, the gap between them coming down to just over six seconds.

 

After the service break came SS5 Isegami’s Tunnel 2 – 19.66 km. The morning stages were being run in a different way to the morning format. Seb was fastest in this one from Takamoto with Adrien third. This was the first time Toyota’s stranglehold on the top three stage times had been interrupted. Elfyn was fourth fastest and fell to third overall. Meanwhile Adrien great time plus Sami only able to set the fifth best time meant the overall gap between them came down to just 1.2 seconds.

 

Onto the penultimate stage of the day then, SS6 Inabu / Shitara 2 – 17.08 km and Seb again was fastest from Elfyn and Sami. In fact, Takamoto set the same time as Sami but was given fourth fastest in the stage. The young Finn actually doubled the gap to Adrien to 2.4 seconds. It had been a very good day so far for the Frenchman in the Hyundai though as he was only 24 seconds from the lead whilst his champion teammates had really struggled and were in Ott’s case a minute and seven seconds from the lead and Thierry was a further twenty seconds back.

 

We came then to the final stage of the day SS7 Shinshiro 2 – 17.41 km which saw the sun setting as the crews came through. Elfyn finished the day with a great time which could not be beaten and Adrien and Takamoto were second and third fastest respectively, just one tenth slower! Very close! Adrien’s pace saw him move ahead of Sami and into fourth but with just three tenths of a second between them it was certainly not over.

 

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day One

1 S. Ogier V. Landais Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1:11:48.2 2 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +7.9 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +10.2 4 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +24.0 5 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +24.3 6 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:12.3 7 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:33.5 8 G. Munster L. Louka Ford Puma Rally1 +2:35.9 9 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +3:22.3 10 A. Cachón B. Rozada Toyota GR Yaris +3:45.5

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Sébastien Ogier

“I think we can be pleased tonight; it’s been a good day for us. This morning we had a decent rhythm but there was not much between the top drivers. Then we were able to have a bit more of a push this afternoon when we had a bit more certainty in the pacenotes and the grip conditions for the second pass. It’s nice that we’ve been able to build this small gap: it’s not much, but always better to be in this position. There’s a long way to go but for now it’s been the start that we wanted to the rally.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s nice to be at the end of Friday in second place. It has been a bit up and down in terms of the feeling for me: on some stages I was quite happy with the car and in some stages I was struggling for some reason, but we will look into this with the team tonight. Also, on the second pass of Isegami’s Tunnel I didn’t take much risk in the tricky places, and Seb was able to take some time there. Still, it’s a long weekend and I will continue to push where I can; let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Elfyn Evans

“We had a decent start this morning. There were some changeable conditions like we expected, and everything was quite close, but the feeling was OK. Then it wasn’t the best afternoon for us, especially in the opening stage of the loop where we seemed to give away a bit of time in a couple of sections. Otherwise, we have not been too far away, but we can’t be completely happy tonight. Still, there is a long way to go in this rally and we will keep trying everything.”

Sami Pajari

“I think it’s been quite a good day overall. It’s my first time here with the Rally1 car and the pace of my team-mates is really high, but we are not so far away and some of the stage times especially were really close to them. Of course, there were also some sections where we were maybe losing a little bit too much time, but the feeling has not been bad, and we will try to improve in these areas for tomorrow.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“The feeling was not so good on the first stage this morning, which was kind of expected with such twisty roads, but on the next stage it was starting to feel pretty good. Unfortunately, we went a bit too fast into one corner – the pacenote was probably too optimistic – and we slid into the rail on the outside and broke the suspension. We could make a creative fix to get back to service where the team was able to repair it properly. We tried a few things with the setup this afternoon and the feeling was getting better, and we’ll keep pushing tomorrow and see what we can gain.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Adrien Fourmaux

“I’m quite pleased with the balance I found this morning, we decided not to change the setup too much and just push which seemed to be the right approach. We overtook Sami, finished in fourth and are not too far away from the podium. The rally is long, but I will keep my head down and focus on driving to the best of my abilities. Now that I’ve got the right balance, we can look into any other setup issues later on.”

Ott Tänak

“The conditions have been really nice and very consistent today; we haven’t been on the pace, but other than that it’s been okay. Adrien is doing very well, and it seems like the potential of the evo car is finally showing itself now – he’s been on the pace.”

Thierry Neuville

“Obviously it’s been a challenging day out there; we were carrying a technical issue all morning, so we were trying to work our setup around that. We got through this afternoon with a fresh rear differential and some new dampers, so we started from scratch trying to find a basic setup to get as much speed as possible. Tomorrow we’ll start again on something new, I have a list of things I want to test.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“It’s been a really strong day for us,” he said. “We won quite a few stages and really enjoyed driving this amazing Yaris on some very challenging roads. It was quite hard to judge the grip in some places – we were caught out in Isegami’s Tunnel first time through. I caught one of the drainage ditches and it spun the car. We dropped around 12 seconds. That was a little bit frustrating, but otherwise it’s been fantastic.

“It’s amazing to see so many fans at the side of the road and a real pleasure to be here competing for the first time. Let’s see what tomorrow brings now.”

 

Saturday

The second full day of competition will see the crews tackle seven stages and a total of almost 122km’s. What will the second day bring for the championship battle?

The battle between the Toyota teammates has come down to the final two rounds of this season in the World Rally Championship. Elfyn and Scott hold a thirteen-point advantage over their multiple world champion teammates, whilst Ott and Martin are fifty points behind their former M-Sport teammates.

 

Of course, it is worth mentioning at this point that Elfyn and Scott have won in Japan for the last two years, 2023 and 2024 and this along with the fact that they will opening the road on Friday’s stages means that they will have a great opportunity to have a great weekend and hope to increase their championship lead.

Let’s take a look at the stages then.

Weekend at a Glance

Cars take to the stages for the first time on Thursday, with Shakedown at Kuragaike Park followed by the Kuragaike Super Special Stage (SS1, 2.75km) in the evening.

Friday’s action takes crews deep into the mountains of Aichi, featuring two loops of Inabu Shitara (SS2/6, 17.08km), Shinshiro (SS3/7, 17.41km) and Isegami’s Tunnel (SS4/5, 19.66km).

Saturday is the longest and most technical day of the rally, with two runs of Obara (SS8/13, 16.44km), Ena (SS9/12, 21.25km) and Mt. Kasagi (SS10/SS11, 21.74km) – before concluding with a run of Toyota City (SS14, 3.05km).

Sunday will round off the event with Nukata (SS15/19, 20.23km) and Lake Mikawako (SS16/20, 13.98km) split by two attempts of Okazaki (SS17/18, 1.98km).

There are 305km’s over twenty stages this year and as always it will be a big challenge.

Let’s hear from the drivers.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“Rally Japan is always a big week as the home event for TGR and there’s a very special atmosphere. It’s not an easy rally with very demanding and twisty stages, and in the last few years we’ve seen some quite difficult conditions at times. Even when it’s dry, there’s very little margin for error and it’s easy to make a small but costly mistake. The first key is to get through without issue, and then it’s about having a good feeling with the car and maintaining concentration for all those corners. We’ve had some good runs there in the past and we’ll be aiming as high as we can again to try and secure a good result for the team at home and for ourselves for the championship.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“I’m really looking forward to competing at Rally Japan again this year. I always enjoy any trip to Japan, and the fans give this event a unique atmosphere compared to other rallies, especially for us as Toyota drivers. The rally itself is a tricky one. There are a few wider and faster sections which are really enjoyable, and a lot of narrow and more technical roads which have maybe not suited me so well in the past. At the moment though I have a really good feeling with this car and tyre on asphalt, so let’s see what we can do this time. The championship is close, and I hope that we can keep pushing hard and score another good result.”

Sébastien Ogier

“Rally Japan is always a special date in the calendar for us, and this year it should be even more interesting for everyone to follow given how close the drivers’ championship is with just two rounds to go. The stages on this rally are very demanding as they are really narrow and technical without much room for error, and we’ve seen that the weather at this time of year can make things even more complicated. The last rally didn’t go our way personally, but we know that we have the speed, and we still have the possibility to fight, and we will be doing our best to achieve a top result in Japan for that and for all of the fans who are giving us such great support there.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“Rally Japan is very special for me as my home rally and I’m really looking forward to driving there again in front of family and friends. It will be the fourth time that we’ve competed in the WRC event in Japan and, after being on the podium in 2022, I would definitely like to try to get back there this year. It’s never an easy rally with the narrow mountain roads, the changing grip levels, and the chance of difficult weather. I can take some confidence from the good stage times and result we did in Central Europe, and I will give everything to get the best result ever for myself, the team and the Japanese rally fans.”

Sami Pajari

“I’m really looking forward to my first Rally Japan as a Rally1 driver with Toyota. I have some good memories from last year when we won the WRC2 title there, and I could already feel the support of the Japanese fans then, so I’m sure that this year it might be on another level. I enjoy the stages in Japan: they are not so fast, but you have to be really precise because they’re so narrow and twisty. We had good speed on some stages in Central Europe and hopefully we can continue that in Japan, where the road generally stays a bit cleaner for each car because there are fewer chances to cut the corners.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“Japan is one of the slowest of the tarmac rallies. We’ve only ever competed when the weather is unpredictable, so with the changing conditions, it’s one of the most challenging tarmac events. There’s definitely an optimum way to set up – it’s actually quite a smooth rally, so not much protection is needed. It’s more about precision and managing the low-grip conditions. We’re lucky to be able to go there at a time of year when the nature is so colourful, the atmosphere is always very warm and kind, so I love going there. For sure, I hope to give my best in Japan, so let’s see how it goes, and hopefully the minor changes we’ve made to the car since CER will help us get a good feeling right away to fight at the top.”

Thierry Neuville

“We’ve definitely had some great memories in Japan. We’re very keen to go back and target another good result, but in our current position we have to focus on improving the car and learning as much as we can from this event, rather than on a top result. We know how technically challenging the event is – it is probably the most twisty event I’ve ever done on tarmac! It’s very demanding and requires a lot of energy and concentration. Due to the time of year, we’re expecting lots of leaves, tricky road conditions and lots of humidity – everything is possible in Japan!”

Adrien Fourmaux

“Rally Japan is unique. The mountain stages are twisty, narrow, and quite dark due to the high trees. In the dry, it is demanding on the tyres, but in the rain it is a completely different challenge. There is a lot of pollution on the roads, which get really slippery, and combined with the visibility it can be really tricky. We struggled for some performance in CER, so we want to show the steps we have made since that rally. Last year was a great event for us, and we would like to replicate that result and be back on the podium in Japan.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Grégoire Munster

“Rally Japan is very special to us because it’s where we took our first WRC2 win. It’s a rally that really suits me because there are so many corners and generally narrow stages. The rain can make it tricky, as we often have to choose a mixed tyre package. Japan is quite unique and very different from what we see in Europe, so it’s always great to come here, try the local food, and experience the culture. The fans – whether in the service park, on the stages, or along the liaison sections – are incredibly supportive. It’s amazing to see so many passionate people and fans.”

Josh McErlean

“It’s great to be back in Japan! I competed here in a Rally2 car last year, so I know how tricky, and also rewarding, these stages can be. After a positive run in Central Europe, the aim is to keep that momentum going and end the event in a good place with M-Sport whilst improving our tarmac pace. I love Japan and its culture, plus the fans are incredible; it’s one of the best places to visit of the season.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“I drive a GR Yaris on the road,” said Oliver. “It’s the most fantastic street car I think I ever had. It would be really cool to try to meet some of the people who made it and make it to say thank you to them! For the rally car, of course, like always it’s prepared by Printsport. What can we say about these guys? They have done the most amazing job for the whole season – the championship me and Elliott won is as much for them as for us.

“The feeling on the last rally (Central European Rally) was a little bit strange. We won the championship in Chile and then we went to Germany and didn’t take any of the pressure for the title race. Me and Elliott focused well and drove it like it was any normal rally – it was nice to take another class win.

“But coming here to Japan, we really have quite a job to do. Like I mentioned, this is the first time here for us and we need to understand the roads and how things change with the weather and how much cutting is going on. There’s a lot to do, a lot of experience to take – and that’s the priority for us here: we want to learn about this rally.

“At the same time, we’re travelling a little bit earlier so we can stay in Tokyo for a while, to enjoy the place, the people and the amazing food. But then we take a test on Sunday and a big focus on the job with the recce and the rally. But all the time, surrounded by these lovely smiling people. I can’t wait!”

Summary

This is going to be a great rally on the roads around Tokyo City and any of the top drivers could stand on the podium. As the championship leaders Elfyn and Scott will want to repeat the victories from the last two years.

 

There are a group of fans who are hoping that they will take this year’s title. I know they’ll be really excited to see if the crew they support can take a closer step to the championship.

We came then to the final day of this event and with 77.78km’s over four stages this was not over and with Seb and Vincent returning to the action and opening the road throughout the day, what would they be able to do with the clean roads ahead of them?

First up was SS15 Beyond Borders 1 – 12.37 km and only three crews finished the stage at competitive speed with Seb setting the pace from Josh and Greg. The reason they were the only three crews which completed the stage was because Thierry crashed on the entry onto a bridge just after a sharp left-hand corner. The rest of the crews were given a notional time.

Next up was SS16 Mühltal 1 – 26.52 km the first run through what would be the power stage. Seb was fastest in this one from Elfyn and Kalle. Ott was the best placed Hyundai with the fourth best time and the gap between him and Elfyn came down to just a little over five seconds. The Welshman had started the day well. Meanwhile Kalle continued to hold the lead with no problems.

Now it was back to SS17 Beyond Borders 2 – 12.37 km and the question was would the knowledge of the stage which Seb completed earlier give him the advantage over those who’d not done the stage, but had fresh tyres? Well, the fact was that with Seb going fastest from Kalle and Elfyn it was clear that the knowledge was the key thing. Ott was only seventh fastest and saw the gap between him and Elfyn fall to just 1.1 seconds.

Onto the final stage then, SS18 Mühltal 2[Power Stage] – 26.52 km and Seb would set the pace from Elfyn, Kalle and Takamoto. The Toyota team occupied the full top five in the stage which saw the Toyota take their fifth manufacturers championship in a row. Meanwhile Elfyn’s pace took him ahead of Ott and into second overall as the Estonian was only sixth in the stage.

Let’s take a look at the top ten and hear from the drivers.

Final Overall Classification – Central European Rally

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2:36:20.1 2 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +43.7 3 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +49.3 4 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:06.8 5 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +2:04.6 6 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +2:13.9 7 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +5:48.8 8 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +8:56.2 9 J. Černý O. Krajča Škoda Fabia RS +10:51.1 10 F. Mareš R. Bucha Toyota GR Yaris +11:21.2

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“Huge congratulations to the whole team, including everybody in the workshop and here in the service park. To win the manufacturers’ championship again proves that we are the best team. Everyone is working super well together, so thank you. It has been a really good weekend for us. It was nice to be back on asphalt and the pace that we had was pretty fast, so we have done a great job together with the team. The drivers’ championship still won’t be easy, but we have at least increased our chances with this result, and we will try to continue like this on the next rally in Japan.”

Elfyn Evans

“I’m overjoyed for this team winning the manufacturers’ championship once again. There’s a massive effort behind this and everybody is working very hard to deliver us the best car and give us the best chances, so I have to say a huge thank you and well done. For me it maybe wasn’t quite the weekend we really hoped for. I think we should have had the potential to do more, so I’m a bit frustrated. It was important to turn things around a bit today and it was a much better day. We managed to grab the second place back from Ott, so I’m happy with how things turned out.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s fantastic that we won the manufacturers’ title again this year. A huge thanks to everybody in the team, they are working so hard, and my team-mates who have done a great job also. For me it has been nice to have a good drive like this here in Central Europe and get a good feeling with the car and the tyres before Rally Japan. I can’t be fully happy and there are still some areas I need to improve, but I will keep working and pushing as much as I can for Rally Japan, which is very important to me.”

Sami Pajari

“A big thank you and congratulations to the team on winning the manufacturers’ championship. It has been quite an OK weekend on my side. I think we had some really good stage times during the weekend. There was also quite a bit of learning still, especially when the conditions were more tricky, but that’s a part of the game for us this season. Overall, I think there are a lot of positive things we can take away from this event, looking towards the next one in Japan and also for the future.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It feels fantastic to win another manufacturers’ title with this team. It’s never easy to keep improving and keep winning but that’s the spirit that this whole team has and I’m very proud of that. We need to celebrate it because nothing ever comes easy, and we will keep pushing and try to continue this success. The car was perfect today, so thank you to the team for fixing it and giving us the tools to recover the maximum points that we could after the incident yesterday. Of course, we would have preferred to come away from this rally with a better result, but we still have a real possibility to fight for the title and we can look forward to the next event in Japan.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“We did everything we could this weekend, and we need to be happy with this outcome. It’s been a tough weekend, we struggled on Friday and gave away a lot, but yesterday we were able to fight back a bit. Today had some very high grip conditions, it was also getting very racy, and we just didn’t have the answer to the Toyotas. I enjoyed the fight, but I didn’t enjoy losing it. We learnt a lot ahead of Japan, so let’s see if we can do some minor changes to improve a bit more.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“We were running well for the first few stages of the rally, but we just didn’t perform well enough on the slippery and bumpy sections. Over the weekend, we made some progress with the flat roads, but we lost time anywhere else. Today was harder, I was fighting the car a lot, but I think we have made some important progress to try and find the right setup for Japan. We still need to work on it, but I’m hoping it’s not going to be the same as this weekend.”

Thierry Neuville

“Martijn and I had quite a big hit this morning. We have completed our medical checks thanks to the ambulance crew and hospital staff who did a great job to make sure we were okay and get us cleared. Everything was normal, and then I made a mistake just before the bridge. It was our mistake; we were too optimistic with a pace note and understeered into the bridge barriers. We know that in rallying the smallest errors can have massive consequences, and that’s what happened today. We will do everything we can to come back stronger in Japan.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Josh McErlean

“It’s been a big learning experience – we’ve had a bit of everything this weekend, running at the front and the back of the field. It was great to see Grégoire back out after his mishap on Friday so we could properly compare times. From the start of the rally to now, we’ve closed that gap to him, and that was one of our main goals coming into this event.”

Grégoire Munster

“It’s not the result we wanted after my mistake on Friday – we landed a jump and broke the suspension, but we had to try something on that stage. Overall, we’ve seen that we’re much closer to the others than we were in Gran Canaria, which is very encouraging. It’s nice to see that even in tricky Tarmac conditions we can be right there with the rest, and I think in Japan we’ll have another opportunity to show that.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“I’m really happy for this one – my first Rally2 win on Tarmac! The Printsport team has done a fantastic job, Elliott has been perfect again and, of course, the Toyota is the perfect car!

“The car has been so consistent for us through the weekend. Even when the weather was a little bit complicated with the rain on Saturday, we could still make everything work. We only drove Canarias on Tarmac with this car before this week, so the experience wasn’t so high for me – but, like I said, the team helped so much to give me so much confidence.”

Arriving at the history-making CER – the first ever world championship round to include competition across three countries in one day – with the WRC2 title sewn up made for a different approach for the 24-year-old.

“It was a little bit strange coming in here,” admitted Oliver. “But Elliott and me wanted to treat this like any other rally and that’s exactly what we did. When you start the event, you put your head down and do your job – this is what we’ve done all year. I’m so proud of what we have achieved.”

Summary

Well, it’s been a great drive by Kalle and Jonne this weekend. They took the most stage wins, kept the mistakes to a minimum and took a very good win. They have brought themselves right back into the championship fight. They remain third in the championship but are on the same points as Seb and Vincent.

 

Elfyn and Scott had their moments of pace and kept it safe when they didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. The penalty on Friday certainly didn’t help but they held their nerve and took a well-deserved second overall which put them back into the lead of the championship.

 

Ott and Martin did enough to take third place after their teammates either made mistakes or just did not have good enough pace throughout the whole weekend to be able to deliver a strong result. They almost had enough for second overall but didn’t have the pace to hold off Elfyn and Scott.

Next up is Rally Japan for the thirteenth round of this year’s championship over the sixth to ninth of November.

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 12

1 E. Evans 247 2 S. Ogier 234 3 K. Rovanperä 234 4 O. Tänak 197 5 T. Neuville 166 6 T. Katsuta 110 7 A. Fourmaux 96 8 S. Pajari 79 9 O. Solberg 64 10 J. McErlean 26

 

 

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 12

1 Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 632 2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 464 3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 176 4 Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2 127

Onto the second day of the rally and with 103km’s over six stages the crews had an interesting challenge ahead of them. Four of the stages were run in Czech Republic with the first and last stages in Germany. Seb of course was leading Kalle by just six tenths of a second coming into Saturday’s action.

 

First up was SS9 Made in FRG 1 – 14.30 km and Kalle was fastest from Ott and Seb. The Finns pace took him ahead of his teammate and into the lead. There was some drama in the early part of the stage as Greg had a spin.

 

Into SS10 Keply 1 – 21.95 km and Kalle took another fastest time from Elfyn and Ott. There was big drama for Seb and Vincent though. Just before 17 or so kilometres the car understeered on a right-hander before hitting a bank on the left-hand side of the road, then colliding with a small tree which then spun the car 180 degrees, the result of which meant the Yaris was damaged on the left-hand side with the front wheel and suspension pulled out. He was frustrated, angry and out for the rest of the day. The team would need to check the car when it arrived back at the service to be sure they could restart on Sunday. Also having a moment was Greg, although at least they were able to continue.

 

The final morning stage then before the tyre fitting zone and Takamoto was fastest from Ott and Kalle. Elfyn was fourth fastest and lost a little bit of time to Ott as the Estonian moved a little closer to passing the Welshman.

 

After the break, SS12 Keply 2 – 21.95 km was next and Ott was fastest from Kalle and Elfyn. There was a position change as Ott moved ahead of Elfyn and into second place. Further back Greg was showing some good pace setting the seventh best time even ahead of Sami in this one. His teammate Josh was continuing to run well inside the top ten, holding eighth position.

Onto the penultimate stage then, SS13 Klatovy 2 – 15.57 km and Takamoto was fastest again from Ott and Sami. Elfyn set the fifth best time, actually faster than the rally leader with Kalle only able to set the sixth best time. He remained firmly in charge though with the lead now 38.2 seconds to Ott.

 

It was back then into Germany for the final stage of the day, SS14 Made in FRG 2 – 14.30 km just as the sun was setting. Thierry set the early pace which even his teammate Ott could not beat whilst Takamoto was third quickest. Elfyn lost more time to Ott as he set the seventh best time, the gap now having grown to 8.4 seconds between them.

 

Let’s take a look at the top ten and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day Three

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1:56:14.7 2 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +36.3 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +44.7 4 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +58.3 5 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:37.7 6 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:59.0 7 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +2:30.9 8 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +4:39.3 9 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +6:32.5 10 J. Černý O. Krajča Škoda Fabia RS +8:26.1

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It’s been a good day for us. We had a really good and tight fight going on with Seb and it’s never easy against him. It was not nice to see what happened to him, and the best thing is that he and Vincent are both OK. After that we just had to focus on our own job and I think we did pretty well, as there was a lot of dirt coming onto the road with every car. We still kept a good pace and rhythm and enjoyed the driving without taking any risk. Tomorrow will be a big day at this point of the season, with four of us who need all the points we can get. We also have the rally win to secure, so it won’t be easy, but we’ll try our best.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been an OK day but I’m naturally not happy with the pace that we were able to show, especially this afternoon. We were pushing but not really able to deliver the pace, and we haven’t been at the level that I want to be at. We tried to change some things on the car during the day, but it didn’t necessarily go in the right direction. So we need to try and find out why tonight and have another go at it tomorrow, with a lot of points available.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s been a good day overall. I can’t be fully happy, as I lost quite a bit of time on the second stage this morning. The conditions were very tricky in sections, and I was not really committed enough in those places. Otherwise, we could do two fastest times in Klatovy – things were working well in that stage. In the other stages too, the car feels good and when I’m pushing, the times are there so that’s a good sign. There is still a long Sunday to come, and I will try to keep pushing.”

Sami Pajari

“It has again been a tricky day. Like yesterday, I think we had some strong stage times and some that were not so great. So, there is plenty of learning to take from that, but I’m generally satisfied that we had no mistakes or issues and some steady pace, getting closer to the front. There are still quite many kilometres tomorrow, especially in the Power Stage, which is quite long, but they’re nice stages so I’m looking forward to them.”

Sébastien Ogier

“I knew that this second stage of the day would be the most difficult with the rain and the leaves on the road, but we were driving with a good rhythm and feeling. Unfortunately, we started to lose pressure from the front-left tyre close to the end of the stage. Going through a fast right-hander, I couldn’t do anything, and we just understeered into the ditch and hit a tree. It’s frustrating but I don’t think I could have done anything differently and sometimes it’s just a matter of luck. The good news is that we should be able to restart tomorrow, and we will do our best to take the full 10 bonus points.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“Today was consistent, but we’re still missing a bit in the trickier conditions. We managed to improve the balance a bit to carry some more speed over the stages, but we’re still not able to match the fastest cars. I don’t know if tomorrow’s stages are going to suit us, but I’ll give it my best to take everything I can to protect the position we are in at the end of today.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“We found some direction today with Thierry, he found a slightly better setup than us, so we now understand what we are missing. We’ve found really good pace on the flat roads that we didn’t have in the Canaries, but now we’re struggling on the bumpier, greasier sections. I want to enjoy tomorrow, so we will take our learnings from today and go for it.”

Thierry Neuville

“We learned a lot today, there was definitely some improvement for us in the afternoon. Tomorrow is another day to maximise the information we can take from this weekend. Ott is feeling much more comfortable today, especially in the trickier places, so these are all steps forward. We will keep testing different setups tomorrow, we are already in Japan with our thinking – those few extra points may change the season.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“We’d never driven this car with a cross-tyre set-up,” said Oliver. “When the rain was coming on the second stage this morning, we crossed wet tyres with the soft – it was interesting and really good experience. If I’m honest, maybe I was a little bit slow, but we learned some more and that’s what we’re here for.

“We’ve been working a lot with the set-up of the car as well, just discovering more and more on how to get the best out of it. From what we hear, the weather could be getting colder tonight, which could make the morning stages even more interesting tomorrow.”

 

Sunday

Well, the final day will see the crews take on 77km’s over four stages between Germany and Austria. This includes the longest stage run ever as the power stage on tarmac at 26.52km’s. The reports suggest the day will have cooler conditions in the morning. What will this mean for the crews and who will best master these conditions to take the higher number of points for the final day?

The first full day of action then would see the crews tackle six stages. However there had already been two stages run on Thursday afternoon and this gave a leaderboard and Seb was holding the lead from Kalle and Adrien. Now Elfyn was given a five second penalty after colliding with a hay bale in a chicane. The Welshman was holding eighth place and 11 seconds from the leader. With 99km’s to run who would hold the lead at the end of the first full day?

 

First up was SS3 Granit und Wald 1 – 10.86 km and Thierry was fastest from Ott and Adrien. The Belgian’s pace took them up three positions to fourth overall. The top three overall was Seb, Kalle 2.7 seconds and second overall whilst Adrien was third.

 

Into the middle morning stage then, SS4 Böhmerwald 1 – 15.27 km and Kalle set the pace from Sami and Takamoto. Thierry could only manage the sixth best time and fell behind his Estonia teammates to fifth overall. This was an interesting stage as the first and second cars into the stage, that’s Seb and Elfyn could only manage the seventh and eighth fastest times. Kalle was finding some speed though and feeling comfortable and was now just six tenths of a second from Seb.

 

The stages were getting longer and next up was SS5 Col de Jan 1 – 23.37 km and this was a stage which Seb felt confident in as he flew through beating Kalle by 3.3 seconds and Elfyn by 12.9 seconds. Normally this would be quite bad but there was more drama for Thierry, and he had a small off giving him damage to the front right-hand side, then a puncture and damage to his steering after hitting a bank. There was even more drama for Greg as he landed heavily after a jump on a section of bank next to the road breaking suspension on the right-hand side and suffering punctures as well.

 

After the service break came SS6 Col de Jan 2 – 23.37 km and with the stages run in the opposite way from the morning this certainly changed things. Kalle was fastest from Seb and Elfyn. The Finnish driver closed the gap on Seb now just 2.4 seconds behind whilst Elfyn was falling away from them both, the gap sadly growing to his teammates. The top three overall positions were held by Seb, Kalle and Ott although Elfyn was now just half a second behind the Hyundai driver.

 

Next up was SS7 Böhmerwald 2 – 15.27 km and Kalle set the pace from Adrien and Takamoto. Elfyn was fifth fastest, whilst Ott was only eighth and was passed by Elfyn who moved into third overall. Kalle’s pace took him really close to his teammate, now just three tenths behind Seb. Further back Josh held ninth overall and was just out there learning the stages and getting experience for the future.

Onto the final stage of the day then, SS8 Granit und Wald 2 – 10.86 km and Elfyn found some pace albeit not a huge amount, going fastest by 1.1 seconds from Seb and Kalle. Still, it was a confidence boosting stage win. The gap between the top two was six tenths of a second.

 

Let’s take a look at the top ten and hear from the drivers.

 

Classification after Friday

1 S. Ogier V. Landais Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1:03:29.8 2 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +0.6 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +29.5 4 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +32.8 5 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +35.7 6 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +46.1 7 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +56.0 8 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:55.8 9 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +2:50.2 10 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +3:37.6

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Sébastien Ogier

“I’ve enjoyed today and this exciting fight with Kalle. We fought the whole day to try and stay in the lead and even though it’s a very small gap, it’s very positive to still be in the lead. Today I don’t think we always had the usual advantage being first on the road on asphalt because it’s been dry and quite dusty, so I think conditions have been more or less fair for everyone which is what we like to see. Tomorrow will not be any easier, and if it rains it can be even more challenging, but we will keep fighting.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“It has been an enjoyable day driving some really nice stages and being in a big fight through the whole day. Starting third on the road I think we have managed the situation well so far, to be this close to Seb, so I’m pretty happy with the day. We had some good stages and some good times and it’s a tight battle. Tomorrow we have the challenge of being further back in the starting order and seeing how conditions evolve, but I’m sure it will stay really close, and we will keep fighting.”

 

Elfyn Evans

“I think we had some strong moments during the day but overall, it didn’t go as well as we would have hoped – especially on Col de Jan, where we lost a bit of time to Seb and Kalle. On the first pass I was a bit tentative at the start and then had a little overshoot and didn’t get as close as I would have liked on the second pass either. I seemed to be losing more today in the dirtier sections, so we need to look at that tonight and see why that was. It’s good to get up to third but it’s still very tight and we need to keep pushing.”

 

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s been a very challenging day as we expected, especially stages five and six which had a lot more dirt on the road. But we managed to get through with some quite OK stage times. I think we probably lost some time because of our road position, which was not ideal, but we are only six seconds away from the podium, so we will keep pushing. It’s not been a bad day, and we will try to be even better tomorrow.”

 

Sami Pajari

“It has been a mixed day in terms of the stages and also for our performance. We had some really good stage times but also some stages where I feel we were a bit too far away from the pace. Of course, I would like to do better but we still need to go step by step and we will try to find something to be more consistent tomorrow. The road position should improve which can help us, but let’s see how the conditions are.”

 

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“Today definitely had some very demanding stages, and we didn’t have enough speed. It’s not so much to do with the setup, but more performance we are missing. We all want to be competitive, so it can be frustrating to just survive, but we did everything we could and tried our best.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“When we’re flowing on the flat roads, we are on the pace, but as soon as we get to a bumpy, dirty stage we really struggle. We need to analyse why this is happening and why we are slower in these conditions – that’s our target for now. We are missing really good testing in these conditions, so I’m not really surprised, but that’s a part of motorsport.”

 

Thierry Neuville

“Today was challenging. We made a small mistake this morning when we went over the jump with the wrong line and got some damage and a puncture. We started working on the car, but there still isn’t much improvement, despite the hard work from everybody. We tried a couple of things and we’re going to continue trying, it’s the only thing we can do at the moment, and we know we have some work left.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“It’s been a good day today – it’s really nice to be getting back into driving on asphalt again. The stages in Germany and Austria were quite clean and giving pretty good grip, but the road in Czech Republic was really different. We knew from the recce this would be a tricky one with the grip level changing a lot – and it was exactly like this: a real test. But it was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it.

“I was learning more all of the time with the car. We made some changes to the set-up, but, really, every stage today was different. We’re going to talk to the team tonight and think about what we want to do with the car for tomorrow – but a lot of the set-up is depending on what the weather does. We’ll see if we get some rain, that could make tomorrow even more interesting.”

Saturday

The second full day of action will see the crews tackle 103km’s over six stages which are in Germany and Czech Republic. Can the reversed top ten help Elfyn and Scott to close the gap to their teammates?