Days 1 & 2
Elfyn Evans survived extreme wet conditions that claimed two Rally1 cars to lead Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville on Friday morning at the World Rally Championship season finale in Japan.
Evans leapt from ninth after Thursday’s night’s super special to claim the lead from Neuville by 26.0s after winning the morning’s two stages. Organisers were forced to cancel the final stage of the loop on safety grounds with the adverse weather conditions preventing the medical helicopter from flying.
There was drama from the outset on stage two (Isegami’s Tunnel, 23.67km) as Sordo locked up and swiped the trees forcing the Spaniard to retire on the same stage where his i20N went up in flames 12 months ago.
M-Sport’s Fourmaux was not so lucky as he also went off the road at the same point triggering organisers to fly the red flags.
Moments before Toyota’s Katsuta went off the road at the same location after initially setting the fastest time on the first splits.
Day 3
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans remains on course for a third World Rally Championship win of the season after closing out Saturday with a lead of more than a minute at Rally Japan.
The Welsh driver conceded time to Ogier across Saturday’s stage but will head into Sunday’s final six stages with a margin of 1m15.0s.
Toyota remained on course to secure a podium lockout on home soil as two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera ended the day in third, 1m40.6s adrift.
The sole remaining Hyundai of Esapekka Lappi completed the day in fourth (+3m09.3s) after starting Saturday in seventh.
M-Sport’s Ott Tanak managed to extend the gap over sixth-placed Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta to 14.9s in the day’s final stage.
WRC2 champion Andreas Mikkelsen, Gregoire Munster, Nikolay Gryazin and Kajetan Kajetanowicz completed the top 10.
Day 4
Elfyn Evans sealed a comfortable third win of the 2023 World Rally Championship in Japan as Toyota wrapped up the season in style with a podium lock-out on home soil.
Evans delivered an impressive display to overcome extreme wet conditions, and even snow showers, to lead home eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier by 1m17.7s.
Toyota completed an utter domination of the 22-stage asphalt event, with two-time world champion Kalle Rovanpera completing the podium, 1m46.5s adrift.
Lappi held onto forth. Katsuta despite his incident on Day 1 took fifth. Tanak ultimately slipped to sixth (+3m28.3s) at the finish in his final event for M-Sport before moving to Hyundai next year.
WRC2 champion Andreas Mikkelsen claimed a fourth class win finishing seventh overall. The top 10 was completed by Rally2 competitors Nikolay Gryazin, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Rally4 driver Hiroki Arai.
