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Neuville takes last win of the season in Japan

Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT could celebrate in style as they won on Toyota`s home soil in Rally Japan on Sunday morning when Thierry Neuville won the last rally of the 2022 season.

Neuville headed Toyota`s Elfyn Evans, who was the only threat for Neuville over the weekend, by just four seconds going to Sunday`s final five stages. With a rainy forecast expected in the afternoon for the rally`s final day, it was a hard gamble to know what tires would be optimal as they were heading out.

Neuville took the right call and selected a pair of soft, hard, and wet weather compounds while Evans went for only soft and hard. It appeared later that Evans probably made the right call as he moved within six-tenths of Neuville in the morning.

Credit: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH

On the following stage, Evans misjudged a right-hander and nudged a kerb with the rear-left tyre, which resulted in a puncture Evans lost about 1 minute and 30 seconds and fell to fifth. As predicted rain started to pour down for the final two stages and Neuville who had the right tyres could be comfortable on the top while Ott Tänak passed to take second place.

Takamoto Katsuta also took advantage when Evans lost time, the Japanese clinched the third-place finish on home soil and trailed Tänak by a minute when crossing the finish line but managed to hold off Sébastien Ogier by 12.3 seconds, who finished in fourth.

Gus Greensmith was best of the rest in the Rally1 hybrid category, the Britoin secured the sixth-place finish. WRC2 cars filled up the rest of the top ten where Grégoire Munster took his maiden WRC2 victory ahead of Teemu Suninen. Emil Lindholm finished ninth overall and third in class which secured him the WRC2 world title and ex-Formula 1 driver Heikki Kovalainen rounded up with a great result on his debut in tenth place.

Official results

Pos.NumberDriver / Co-driverNat.TeamCarClassTime
1.#11Thierry Neuville / Martijn WydaegheBelgiumHyundai Shell Mobis WRTHyundai i20 N Rally1Rally12:43:52.3
2.#8Ott Tänak / Martin JärveojaEstoniaHyundai Shell Mobis WRTHyundai i20 N Rally1Rally1+ 1:11.1
3.#18Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron JohnstonJapan / IrelandToyota Gazoo Racing NG WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally1+ 2:11.3
4.#1Sébastien Ogier / Vincent LandaisFranceToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally1+ 2:23.6
5#33Elfyn Evans / Scott MartinUKToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally1+ 4:05.1
6.#44Gus Greensmith / Jonas AnderssonUK / SwedenM-Sport Ford WRTFord Puma Rally1Rally1+ 4:07.4
7.#24Grégoire Munster / Louis LoukaLuxembourg / BelgiumBMAHyundai i20 N Rally2WRC2+ 7:50.8
8.#22Teemu Suninen / Mikko MarkkulaFinlandHyundai Motorsport NHyundai i20 N Rally2WRC2+ 8:12.4
9.#21Emil Lindholm / Reeta HämäläinenFinlandToksport WRTSkoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC2+ 8:25.6
10.#29Heikki Kovalainen / Sae KitagawaFinland / JapanRally Team AicelloSkoda Fabia R5WRC2+ 8:59.8
11.#23Sami Pajari / Enni MälkönenFinlandToksport WRTSkoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC2+ 9:00.8
12.#69Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne HalttunenFinlandToyota Gazoo Racing WRTToyota GR Yaris Rally1Rally1+ 10:48.8
13.#26Sean Johnston / Alexander KihuraniUSASaintéloc Junior TeamCitroen C3 Rally2WRC2+ 10:53.5
14.#28Mauro Miele / Luca BeltrameItalyToksport WRT 2Skoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC2+ 12:33.5
15.#40Hiroki Arai / Ilka MinorJapan / AustriaAhead Japan Racing TeamPeugeot 208 Rally4Rally4+ 16:47.3
16.#30Osamu Fukunaga / Misako SaidaJapanThree Five MotorsportSkoda Fabia R5WRC2+ 18:03.2
17.#35Eamonn Boland / Michael Joseph MorrisseyIrelandEamonn BolandFord Fiesta Rally2WRC2+ 18:42.0
18.#32Luke Anear / Stuart LoudonAustralia / UKM-Sport Ford WRTFord Fiesta Rally2WRC2+ 21:27.1
19.#25Bruno Bulacia / Gabriel MoralesBolivia / BrazilToksport WRT 2Skoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC2+ 22:05.9
20.#39Hiroshi Yanagisawa / Takahiro YasuiJapanCusco RacingToyota GR YarisNAT+ 25:34.7
21.#41Katsuya Nakahira / Masahiko ShimazuJapanR-ART Rally TeamToyota GT86 CS-R3Rally4/R3+ 29:25.5
22.#37Satoshi Imai / Shizuka TakeharaJapanAKM Motor SportCitroen C3 Rally2WRC2+ 31:30.3
23.#43Yasuyuki Sasaki / Anri NakashimaJapanTeam BRIDEToyota GR YarisNAT+ 33:04.9
24.#42Craig Breen / James FultonIrelandM-Sport Ford WRTFord Puma Rally1Rally1+ 33:22.2
25.#36Frédéric Rosati / Patrick ChiappeFranceBMAHyundai i20 N Rally2WRC2+ 35:50.8
26.#45Yuta Yamamoto / Kazuko TachikuiJapanK-ONE Racing TeamToyota GR86NAT+ 37:25.5
27.#46Kosuke Murata / Madoka UmemotoJapanWELLPINE MotorsportPeugeot 208 R2Rally4+ 45:28.2
28.#38Norihiko Katsuta / Yusuke KimuraJapanToyota Gazoo RacingToyota GR YarisNAT+ 53:26.7
29.#27Fabrizio Zaldivar / Marcelo Der OhannesianParaguay / ItalyHyundai Motorsport NHyundai i20 N Rally2WRC2+ 1:00:52.2
30.#49Taisuke Aihara / Tsukasa HaginoJapanD-Sport Halfway Racing Rally TeamDaihatsu CopenNAT+ 1:04:21.7
31.#48Kohei Izunu / Tetsuhiro HigashiyamaJapanK´s World Rally TeamToyota Vitz III RSRally5+ 1:09:00.4
32.#34Jean-Michel Raoux / Laurent MagatFranceJean-Michel RaouxVolkswagen Polo GTi R5WRC2+ 1:11:42.4
33.#6Dani Sordo / Cándido CarreraSpainHyundai Shell Mobis WRTHyundai i20 N Rally1Rally1RETIRED
34.#20Kajetan Kajetanowicz / Maciej SzczepaniakPolandRace SevenSkoda Fabia Rally2 evoWRC2RETIRED
35.#31Toshihiro Arai / Naoya TanakaJapanStohl RacingCitroen C3 Rally2WRC2RETIRED
36.#47Mitsuhiro Kunisawa / Masahiko KiharaJapanKunisawa NetRenault Clio Rally5Rally5RETIRED

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