Evans leads as Neuville battles Friday woes in Japan

With just four of the rally’s 21 stages completed, the WRC’s season finale is already living up to its dramatic reputation. While Toyota stars Sébastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta were among those to encounter trouble, it was Neuville’s technical issue that stole the spotlight.

The Belgian holds a 25-point lead over Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID team-mate Ott Tänak in the drivers’ championship and needs only six points to seal the 2024 title.

Nothing is certain until Sunday afternoon’s finish ramp, however, and a mysterious loss of power on SS4 at Shinshiro saw Neuville drop nearly 40sec and left him with serious concerns heading into the afternoon. With only a tyre fitting zone separating the morning and afternoon loops, Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe have limited tools to resolve the problem.

Tänak led through the opening two stages but ceded the top spot to Evans after SS4 when the Welshman, piloting a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 HYBRID, edged ahead by seven-tenths of a second.

Toyota’s hopes of closing Hyundai’s 15-point lead in the manufacturers’ championship suffered an early blow, with both Katsuta and Ogier picking up tyre damage on the day’s first test. Katsuta ended fourth overall, while Ogier sat over two minutes back from the lead after a time-consuming wheel change. Despite his troubles, Neuville remained 40.2sec off the top spot and retained a 31.0sec buffer over Katsuta in the overall standings.

Adrien Fourmaux, who led following Thursday night’s opener, struggled to replicate his early pace. Brake fade and difficulty getting his Puma Rally1 HYBRID turned into the tight corners limited the M-Sport Ford driver to fifth.

Andreas Mikkelsen endured a frustrating morning as well, with the Hyundai driver running wide on the slippery asphalt in SS2 and narrowly avoiding getting stuck. A problem with his car’s header tank also caused fluid to spill onto the windscreen but he reached the tyre fitting zone 6.3sec behind Fourmaux.

M-Sport’s Grégoire Munster was seventh, with WRC2 leader Nikolay Gryazin in eighth. Ogier, recovering from a near two-minute delay during his wheel change, was ninth while Sami Pajari rounded out the top 10 and held second in WRC2 – a position that, as it stands, would secure him the championship title.