It was a good first day for the native Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT outfit as the eight-time world rally champion Sébastien Ogier together with his new co-driver Vincent Landais posted the fastest stage time on the opening stage of Rally Japan.
The short Kuragaike Park stage is one of the few stages during this year´s schedule that has been run in full darkness and Ogier came out best of the pack on the slippery condition, the Frenchmen are contesting their first rally together as a duo after Ogier parted ways with Benjamin Veillas after taking the win in Spain last time out.
It was quite tight in the top five with just five-tenth of a second separating the drivers with M-Sport´s Craig Breen just coming short by a single tenth, the Irishman also has a new co-driver for Rally Japan as James Fulton is replacing the retired Paul Nagle.
Credit: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Ott Tänak who is contesting his final rally for Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT took the third fastest time, putting all three manufacturers in the top three. The Estonian trailed the Frenchman by two-tenths with teammate Thierry Neuville only one-tenth behind.
The 2022 WRC champion Kalle Rovanperä completes the tightened top places in fifth followed up by Toyota colleague Elfyn Evans in sixth with six-tenths of a second down on the Finn. Local home hero Takamoto Katsuta finished in seventh with 1.9 seconds down on Ogier and edged Gus Greensmith with three-tenths. Dani Sordo managed to only take a ninth-place finish and was 3.1 seconds slower than Ogier and the 2022 WRC2 title contender Emil Lindholm completes the top 10 with an impressive time of being just 4 seconds slower than the top runners.
The stage was unfortunately canceled early on in the evening as the Japanese legend Toshiro Arai who is returning to WRC suffered a heavy crash in his Citroen C3 Rally2, both he and co-driver Naoya Tanaka were taken to hospital for a medical check-up but reports are stating they are okay.
Official result after day one (top 10)
| Pos. | Number | Driver / Co-driver | Nat. | Team | Car | Class | Time |
| 1. | #1 | Sébastien Ogier / Vincent Landais | France | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | 2:07.0 |
| 2. | #42 | Craig Breen / James Fulton | Ireland | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | Rally1 | + 0.1 |
| 3. | #8 | Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja | Estonia | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | + 0.2 |
| 4. | #11 | Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe | Belgium | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | + 0.3 |
| 5. | #69 | Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen | Finland | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | + 0.6 |
| 6. | #33 | Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin | UK | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | + 1.2 |
| 7. | #18 | Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston | Japan / Ireland | Toyota Gazoo Racing NG WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | Rally1 | + 1.9 |
| 8. | #44 | Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson | UK / Sweden | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | Rally1 | + 2.2 |
| 9. | #6 | Dani Sordo / Cándido Carrera | Spain | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | Rally1 | + 3.1 |
| 10. | #21 | Emil Lindholm / Reena Hämäläinen | Finland | Toksport WRT | Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo | Rally1 | + 4.0 |