Rally Japan lead change as Neuville passes Evans for overnight lead

The penultimate leg of this year´s season-finale in Rally Japan saw yet a lead change as Hyundai´s Thierry Neuville passed Elfyn Evans on SS12 Lake Mikawako 2 and sits with a four-second lead heading for the final day of rallying in 2022.

Evans kicked off the penultimate day with a three-second lead in the morning and before the midday service he had a 5.9 seconds advantage over the Belgian but the Welshman lost his pace in the afternoon and that led to Neuville taking the chance to pass. This was the first lead change since Friday morning when the duo did share the rally lead at one point with identical times.

With only three stages being run in the afternoon as SS13 Okazaki City SSS 1 was canceled due to delays, the drivers did give the chance to go on the same stage again as Okazaki City played host for SS14 as well. It seems to become a two-way battle for the win as the gap down to a third place where Ott Tänak sits currently is almost 40 seconds from the lead.

Credit: M-Sport Ford WRT

Tänak however has managed to stretch a bit away from the local home hero Takamoto Katsuta, the Estonian is currently having a 24.6 seconds advantage. Sébastien Ogier predicted he will pass Gus Greensmith on the afternoon loop and he did that the Frenchman sits in fifth overall with Greensmith going down to sixth with 3:25 minutes gap to the rally lead.

WRC2 cars are still filling up the rest in the top ten leaderboard where Emil Lindholm is closing on his second driver´s world title this season in the class, after winning the WRC2 Junior title before Spain. As Teemu Suninen received a time penalty for being late to check in, the Finn has dropped down to tenth overall which meant Sami Pajari and Grégoire Munster climbed up a place each.

Results after SS14 (top 10)