Thierry Neuville kickstarted his Rally Japan recovery on Saturday morning to close in on the World Rally Championship points-paying positions, while title rival Ott Tanak witnessed his lead trimmed by Elfyn Evans.
Neuville, now driving a fully-functioning Hyundai i20N after Friday’s power issue, managed to haul himself up tot 11th spot as Tanak kept his championship hopes alive by continuing to lead the rally.
Evans cut Tanak’s lead to 16.3s after stage 11, before the final test of the loop was cancelled due to safety reasons.
M-Sport-Ford Adrian Fourmaux held third, ahead of Toyota duo Sebastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta, with M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster in sixth.
Hyundai’s work overnight to repair a turbo issue that severely hampered Neuville proved successful as the Belgian returned to action on Saturday with an i20 N producing full power.
Neuville’s mission to recover from 15th to the top 10 and the points-paying positions was further assisted by Hyundai deploying team orders. The team instructed the returning Andreas Mikkelsen, who crashed on stage five on Friday, to check into stage 10 late to improve Neuville’s road position.
Neuville tackled the all-new Mt.Kasagi stage (16.47km) with caution but was still able to post the fifth fastest time, which helped the Belgian climb to 13th spot, after WRC2 runners Jan Solans and Josh McErlean suffered terminal damage during the stage.
“Finally the car is working and we can get some speed. Obviously today is all about getting back in the points trying to maximise the day,” said Neuville.
Munster set an impressive pace to log a benchmark time that looked set to give the M-Sport driver a first WRC stage win. However, Evans denied the Luxembourger as the Toyota driver eclipsed the time by three seconds.
Rally leader Tanak matched Munster’s time to further outline what was one of the Ford’s best runs this season, but the former’s effort resulted in his lead over Evans being trimmed to 17.9s.
In the battle for third, Fourmaux managed to increase his 0.1s overnight advantage to 5.2s over Toyota’s Katsuta following a strong run from the Frenchman.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
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