WRC 2
Advantage Gryazin as WRC2 fight set for Sunday thriller
Nikolay Gryazin will take a slender 5.7sec WRC2 lead into the final day of FORUM8 Rally Japan after Alejandro Cachón fought back during Saturday’s afternoon loop.
The pair have been locked in a close battle since Friday morning and again traded momentum across the rally’s longest day, with Gryazin building an advantage before Cachón responded late on to keep the fight alive.
Gryazin started Saturday 8.3sec behind in his Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale but immediately reduced the gap on Obara, despite damaging a front-right wheel and reporting heavy vibration. Cachón, meanwhile, was struggling with understeer in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
The Bulgarian kept pressing through Ena, where he moved back into the category lead, then extended his advantage across both passes of Mt. Kasagi. By the end of the afternoon’s opening stage, the gap had grown to 11.6sec.
Alejandro Cachón's Saturday in Japan was not without incident
© At World
Cachón, last year’s WRC2 winner in Japan, refused to let the lead drift further away. After completing running repairs to rear damage, the Spaniard raised his pace over the final part of the day and was quickest on three of the last four stages.
That late response cut Gryazin’s cushion back to 5.7sec overnight, setting up a tense final-day fight across Sunday’s six remaining stages.
The battle for the final podium place took a decisive turn on the second pass of Mt. Kasagi. Home driver Yuki Yamamoto was already chasing a maiden WRC2 podium when rival Fabrizio Zaldivar went wide on a left-hand corner around 8km into the stage, leaving his Toyota beached on a bank.
With Zaldivar and co-driver Marcelo Der Ohannesian confirmed OK, his Saturday came to an early end and Yamamoto was left with a clearer path to third.
The Japanese driver will start Sunday third in WRC2, 47.2sec ahead of former category champion Emil Lindholm, who has struggled to find a consistent rhythm in his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 across the opening two days.
Yuki Yamamoto is poised for a breakthrough WRC2 podium
© At World
Lindholm still holds a comfortable margin of more than three minutes over Hiroki Arai, while Norihiko Katsuta sits sixth in WRC2 and continues to lead WRC Masters Cup. Katsuta, father of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Takamoto Katsuta, is more than five minutes clear of his nearest Masters rival.
Fumio Nutahara, Osamu Fukunaga and Satoshi Imai complete a trio of Japanese drivers inside the WRC2 top nine, with Paraguay’s Andrea Lafarja rounding out the top 10.
In WRC3, Ghjuvanni Rossi is on course for a second category victory of the season after building a lead of more than 20 minutes over Georgios Vasilakis. Nicolas Otto, who retired on Friday with a broken driveshaft, restarted on Saturday and completed the leg third in class.
WRC3 leader Ghjuvanni Rossi
© At World
