Technical problems for Neuville, Evans allows Toyota to put pressure on Hyundai

To Thierry Neuville, this morning, which had started well, ended very badly. Second before the last start of the last special of the morning loop, the Belgian was the victim of a mechanical problem on his Hyundai i20. Shortly after the 12,6 kilometres in SS4, the championship leader was slowed down, unable to get his engine up to speed, forced to drive at around 80/90 km/h in the twisty sections with a peak of 115 km/h.

In the case, Thierry Neuville lost 40 seconds to Elfyn Evans who took advantage of the situation and his best time in SS8 to take control of the Rally from Japan at the lunch break, 7 tenths ahead Ott Tänak. Luckily, the Hyundai driver took advantage of the big gap to the drivers outside the Top 3 to “only” drop back to 3rd position in the general classification before the afternoon specials. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to resolve his technical problems, while he admitted not knowing the origin of them, simply saying that he had “no power”, even though there is no return to the service park during this break. At present, he has a 31-second lead over Takamoto Katsuta, currently in 4th place, a position that allows Toyota to put pressure on Hyundai in the fight for the Constructors' Championship while Evans leads (15 points gap between them at the start of the weekend). Adrien fourmaux completes the Top 5 at 1'13“5 from the head.

😱 Another twist in the championship?! There's technical drama for @thierryneuville and @MWydaeghe in SS4 at Rally Japan, and they've dropped over 40s.

Here's hoping they can fix it before the afternoon loop of stages.#RallyJapan #WRC pic.twitter.com/MKmSEcUIbk

— Hyundai Motorsport (@HMSGOfficial) November 22, 2024

For its part, Sébastien Ogier started his Friday with a front-left puncture mid-stage in SS2. A mishap that cost him around 2 minutes. He is in 8th place in Rally1, 2'03"5 behind Elfyn Evans.

General classification after SS4

In WRC2, Sami Pajari, who must finish 2nd at worst to win the title, had a scare but held on. The Finn also suffered a puncture on the front left, this time in SS3. Fortunately for him, Gus Greensmith, who came to Japan to play spoilsport in order to help Oliver Solberg become champion, made a mistake in the same special stage which allowed him to keep 2nd place in the category, 46 seconds behind the leader Nikolay Gryazin. For the rest of the day, he could afford to take it easy since Jan Solans, third, is 7'1 behind him.

The complete general classification

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