Sébastien Ogier leads Rally Japan from Elfyn Evans as their World Rally Championship title rival Kalle Rovanperä hit trouble.
Rovanperä had led the event overnight but, after falling to joint fourth place after the day’s opener, his rally curtailed on SS3 when a collision with an Armco barrier damaged his Toyota’s rear-left suspension and cost him over two minutes.
A strong repair job by Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen on the road section kept them in the game, but the Finnish pair leaked another two minutes on Isegami’s Tunnel to end the morning over five minutes down.
“We managed to do something, so obviously it’s good that we got through but we had to be slow.”
Asked what it means for his title chances, Rovanperä simply added: “We will see.”
His rivals Ogier and Evans had far better mornings – the duo lying first and second overall; split by just 1.0s after four stages.
Ogier remained ahead of Evans throughout, but the Welshman won the final stage of the morning to keep his team-mate under pressure.
AloJapan.com