Thierry Neuville is the first leader of the Rally of Japan. The final round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) started this Thursday with the super-special at Toyota Stadium in Toyota.
The Belgian from Hyundai completed the 2.10km timed stage in 1m47.6s, surpassing his teammate Esapekka Lappi by seven tenths. Ott Tänak, who is competing in his last race for M-Sport Ford here, finished third at 1.4s, followed by Dani Sordo (Hyundai) and Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota). The already champion Kalle Rovanperä from Toyota set the sixth fastest time, four seconds off the top.
Nikolay Gryazin, in Skoda, set the pace in WRC2 and WRC2 Challenger: in WRC2, he beat the already champion Andreas Mikkelsen (Skoda) by 1.3s, while in WRC2 Challenger he was 2.2s faster than Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Skoda). Heikki Kovalainen (Skoda), former Formula 1 driver, recorded the fourth fastest time in WRC2 and third in WRC2 Challenger, 3.4s behind Gryazin. In WRC3, the only driver in the race, Jason Bailey, completed the super-special in 2m21s, in 26th overall position.
Top ten overall after SS1:
