Rally Japan – SS2: Evans and Solberg take off

It's a legendary special of the Rally The competitors in this 2026 edition of the Japanese rally had to navigate the Isegami's Tunnel stage, named after its famous tunnel. A slight change this year: the special stage was lengthened by 4 new kilometers at the tunnel exit, as well as by one new kilometer at the start. The result is a total length of 24,29 kilometers, considered by all competitors to be one of the most difficult stages of the rally, if not the most difficult.

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The least that can be said is that this first major stage of Rally Japan created some significant gaps, particularly due to the road surface becoming increasingly degraded with each run. It's worth remembering that rain fell overnight, making the road surface very treacherous at times, and this stage was no exception. Elfyn Evans – Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) set the best time, 7,5 seconds ahead of Oliver Solberg – Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1), Sébastien Ogier – Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) limited the damage by setting the 3rd fastest time, 16,7 seconds behind the winners of the special stage.

But their rivals are already quite far down the standings. While Evans, Solberg, and Ogier maintain a gap of 16,5 seconds at the end of SS2, all their pursuers are now more than 20 seconds behind. In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksadrov have regained the lead after a somewhat disappointing first stage. The pair put their factory Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale at the top of the timesheets for the stage, 16,5 seconds ahead of Alejandro Cachón and Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), their main rivals for the weekend in the championship.

WRC – Rally Japan
The overall standings for SS2 (Rally1)

The provisional overall standings after SS2 (Rally1)

The provisional overall standings after SS2 (WRC2)