The opening morning of the final round of the WRC season started with a bang when Sebastian Ogier dropped two minutes with a puncture in the day’s opening stage, dropping the French crew to 18th overall.
Takamoto Katsuta also had a puncture in the same stage and was ninth overall at the end of SS2, not what Toyota needed in their fight for the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Thierry Neuville suffered a loss of power in the final stage of the morning loop, setting the 10th fastest time but still in third overall, some 40 seconds off the lead. However, the crew was unable to fix their power problem in the tyre-fitting zone and it will stay with them over the remaining five stages.
Neuville dropped 2½ minutes in stage five and in stage six, a faster flowing stage, the Hyundai could barely top 100km/h.
Stage five was red-flagged after Andreas Mikkelsen crashed out of the rally just after km 11, blocking the stage.
In WRC2, Sami Pajari still holds second place which is where he needs to finish to bag the WRC2 title.
Gus Greensmith, who was hoping to win WRC2 to help his teammate Oliver Solberg win the title, slid of the road and caused significant damage to the front-end of his Skoda.
Ott Tänak leads Rally Japan from Elfyn Evans
