A messy end to the morning in Japan, Neuville in recovery mode

Unlike the day before, this Saturday morning at Rally Japan has not experienced any emotional upheavals. The main news concerns Thierry Neuville, competitive again after his mechanical misadventures on Friday. 

With his turbo repaired, the Belgian was able to drive at a normal speed, taking advantage of the opportunity to make up ground and thus get closer to the points. The championship leader has repeated it constantly, this is his only objective this Saturday. It was good, he summed up after the first three special stages of the day. I tried to do the same thing all the way through the loop. We'll see where we are tonight. (...) This is the only thing we can do » 

As he heads to the tyre fitting area, Thierry Neuville is unfortunately unsure of his real position – although he was closing in on the top 10 overall – as SS12 was neutralised while Elfyn Evans and Ott Tänak still had to make their passage. According to the images from the on-board camera of the Toyota Welshman, a car was in his way. For safety reasons, the race direction decided to stop the special.

Before this SS11, Ott Tänak had seen his lead over Elfyn Evans go from 20 to 9 after the first two times of the day. They should then perhaps wait for their second run in this Ena special and then for the organisers to adjust their times to see a little more clearly as to their real gap.

ℹ️ Due to a safety issue within SS12, Elfyn Evans was held at the start line. The stage will now not restart and crews will head for the tire fitting zone. #WRC | #RallyJapan 🇯🇵

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) November 23, 2024

In the fight for third, Sébastien Ogier has fully recovered. Fifth and 21 seconds behind Adrien fourmaux Before the first start of the day, the Gapençais managed to come back to just 3“4 from his compatriot before the afternoon loop. However, the time of the SS12 of the Northerner, first appeared on the broadcast screen, seems to have been removed from the official classifications of the WRC. For the moment, the provisional classification is led by Ogier given the situation even if this should change in the coming hours.

The resumption of the Rally of Japan is scheduled for 5:05 a.m. this Saturday and will be followed live with commentary on AUTOhebdo.

(Update : a first fixed time – certainly provisional – was awarded to Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans following the interruption of SS12. The two leaders recovered the time set by Sébastien Ogier, author of the scratch in SS12. The stewards could modify these times after the second passage in the Ena special, during SS15.)

WRC – Rally Japan
ES12 – Ranking

General ranking after ES12

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