Ott Tanak ignited his slim World Rally Championship hopes with a dominant drive to lead Rally Japan on Friday after a power issue proved costly for title favourite Thierry Neuville.
The Hyundai driver successfully navigated through the day’s eight stages to open up a 20.9s lead over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, with M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux in third, 1m53.9s back.
Tanak realistically needed team-mate Neuville to hit trouble in Japan to stand any chance of securing the title given the latter only requires six points to seal a maiden world title. His title hopes were given a boost in stage four when Neuville’s i20 N suddenly lost full power, resulting in the car limping through the stages in road mode.
As a result, Neuville ended the day outside of the points-paying positions in 15th, 7m41.3s adrift of Tanak.
Toyota’s attempt to overhaul Hyundai in the manufacturers’ title battle took a hit with Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier suffering punctures on Friday morning. The pair recovered to slot into fourth [+1m54.0s] and fifth [+2m15.6s], while M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster survived a spin in stage four to sit sixth [+2m37.4s].
Unfortunately for Neuville the power issue was unable to be fixed in the midday tyre-fitting zone. It meant the title favourite would haemorrhage time across the afternoon as he guided his wounded i20 N through the stages.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport
Neuville dropped 2m30.8s to title rival Tanak and slumped to ninth overall after stage five, the second pass through Isegami’s Tunnel.
“We couldn’t solve the issue. We will keep fighting and the hard work of the year is valuable now, [the] 25-point [lead] has value now,” said a dejected Neuville.
In contrast, team-mate Tanak delivered an inspired performance to win the stage and overhaul Evans to assume the rally lead.
The Estonian was 14.4s faster than Evans, who felt he had opted for the wrong tyre choice, having selected a package of three hards and three softs.
Meanwhile, the recovering Ogier, following his puncture on the same stage earlier this morning, emerged as Tanak’s nearest rival some 6.2s shy of the Hyundai driver.
Neuville’s issue handed Toyota’s Katsuta third overall ahead of M-Sport-Ford duo Fourmaux and Munster.
Mikkelsen, sitting sixth, survived a run-in with a bank earlier this morning but this time he was…
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