Neuville salvages points in fightback, Tanak extends lead

Thierry Neuville boosted his World Rally Championship hopes by provisionally claiming more than half of the points needed to secure the title, while rival Ott Tanak extended his Rally Japan lead.

Six points from the Japan season finale will secure a maiden title for Neuville, but that task was hanging in the balance after a turbo issue on Friday left the Hyundai driver in 15th position at the start of Saturday’s action.

Neuville delivered a faultless drive under pressure to climb to seventh [+7m43.7s], giving him four provisional points, across the day’s seven stages.

Tanak maintained his slim title hopes by picking up 18 points for topping Saturday’s standings by increasing his rally lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans to 38.0s. The advantage had been cut to 15.3s after stage 12 was cancelled after an unauthorised vehicle ventured onto the stage.

Toyota trimmed Hyundai’s lead in the manufacturers’ title battle to 11 points with Sebastien Ogier moving into third [+2m10.9s] ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+2m19.1s]. Takamoto Katsuta [+2m25.6s] ended the day in fifth, while M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster held a comfortable sixth [+3m07.1s].

After rejoining the rally on Saturday morning following Friday’s retirement, Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen was absent from the afternoon loop as the team opted to save the car for Sunday’s stages.

Having witnessed Evans reduce his lead to 15.3s across the morning, Tanak issued a response at the start of the afternoon loop by winning stage 13 (Mt Kasagi, 16.47km).

The Hyundai driver didn’t have the balance he wished for on the hard tyre but was still able to claim his third stage-topping time of the rally to add 6.1s his advantage on Evans, who was fighting understeer in his GR Yaris.

“I definitely tried to push [but] somehow I don’t have as good a balance as I did yesterday with hard tyre, but I felt comfortable. We need to keep going, Japan is never comfortable,” said Tanak.

The intense fight for third saw another change of position as Ogier helped Toyota to more manufacturers’ points by leapfrogging M-Sport’s Fourmaux.

“I was happy with the pace. Seb is quicker. What else can I say? He is an eight-time world champion, he has to be quicker,” said Fourmaux, who trailed Ogier by 1.6s but remained ahead of Katsuta by four…