WRC Japan: Evans extends lead as Rovanpera suffers puncture

Toyota driver Evans managed to take time out his Hyundai rival Neuville on two of the morning’s three stages to move into a 6.5s lead after Saturday morning’s loop.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak climbed to third, 26.9s adrift of the lead, after newly crowned world champion Rovanpera picked up a right front puncture following a run in with a rock face.

As a result of Rovanpera’s problems, local favourite Takamoto Katsuta inherited fourth ahead of M-Sport’s Gus Greensmith, with eight-time world champion Sebastian Ogier sixth, while Rovanpera dropped outside of the top 10.

The morning loop began with a blistering run from leader Evans in the day's first stage that resulted in the Welshman almost doubling his overall advantage over Neuville.

Evans emerged through the narrow and twisty Nukata Forest (20.56km) test, 2.9s faster than Neuville, who reported that he had too much information in his pacenotes.

"I tried. I had quite an okay stage but in the very narrow sections I have too much information in my pace notes and it was very difficult to keep concentrated. I did what I could,” said Neuville.

The battle for the victory encountered another twist during the stage as Rovanpera, sitting third, hit trouble. The Finn understeered at a tight hander and slid into a rock face which caused a puncture to the front right.

Rovanpera dropped 2m36.0s in the stage after changing the wheel, demoting him from third to sixth overall.

He wasn’t the only driver to suffer a puncture as Breen, driving the repaired M-Sport Ford Puma after yesterday’s crash, picked up a right rear failure towards the end of the stage.

Neuville issued a response to Evans in the next test taking 1.2s out of the rally leader after revealing his pass was smoothest of the rally so far. Evans did however admit that it wasn’t the cleanest of stages.

"I didn't have the best run in here. The start was especially quite bad but the end was okay,” said Evans.

It was team-mate Ogier who claimed the stage win after pipping Neuville by 0.3s. The effort was enough to leapfrog Rovanpera into sixth overall as the world champion suffered another blow.

Rovanpera knocked his front right wheel during his pass, causing minor damage to it in the process. Having already used his spare wheel in the previous stage, he was forced to persevere with the damage.

"There was something on a right-hand corner where we got a bit close but it was not a big hit," said Rovanpera. “I have no spares and the car is not 100% on the right corner. It's not working and turning in as well as it should.”

Rovanpera wasn’t the only driver to suffer drama in the stage as team-mate Katsuta misjudged a junction and ran up a grass bank, which cost the local hero valuable seconds.

The Japanese was lucky to avoid further issues after struggling with slippery conditions caused by fallen leaves.

"I had no info about the end of the stage and it was very, very slippery. I could not drive like this and it was so dangerous for me,” said Katsuta.

The battle for the rally lead swung again in Evans favour on the fast and wide asphalt rods of Stage 10, as he took 1.8s out of Neuville, who again struggled with his pacenotes.

Neuville also reported a loose drain cover during the stage which required officials to intervene after the Rally1 cars passed through.

“On the recce we had to do 60kph which is very slow, and my pacenotes are related on speed," said Neuville.

There was more drama for Rovanpera as he was late into the stage after electing to fit his punctured tyre to the right rear to save his other damaged but inflated wheel and tyre for the road section back to service.

He dropped more than a minute as he plummeted further down the order.

Crews will repeat the first two stages this morning before then tackling two runs of a short super special stage held in Okazaki City to complete the leg.