العاب نارية - تفعل عند فوز الفريق بالكأس

Evans mène après une journée chaotique


After a particularly difficult first round on Thursday, the Toyotas occupied the top three positions in the Japan Rally, with the gaps wide between Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier and Calle Rovanpera. The rainy day saw the departures of Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Adrien Fourmeaux.

If the Toyotas missed out on Thursday during the first Japanese Special Rally (none of them in the top four), which consisted of a short loop at Toyota Stadium, they made up for it on Friday, taking the top three positions in the rally. Classification after seven special stages (out of 22). It was Elfyn Evans who came out the best from a chaotic day, with heavy rain falling, and where the Hyundais of Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo had to retire, just as the Ford Puma M Sport of Adrien Formaux, which had given the British team a chance in this rally.

From the first special of the day (SS2), the “haunted” Isigami Tunnel, Elfyn Evans took the lead of the general classification, dominating Sébastien Ogier by four seconds and Thierry Neuville, who won the special race, by 21 seconds. From Toyota Stadium. Double world champion Cale Rovanpera, who opened the road covered in pine needles, lost 32 seconds, while Dani Sordo ran off the road and had to leave. A few moments later, it was Adrian Formo who ran off the road in the same place and also had to give up. Before the Spaniard and the Frenchman, this corner also witnessed Takamoto Katsuta turning, but the Japanese was able to resume his journey, despite some damage to his car’s radiator.

Puddles, fog, pine needles…

The third special round was less eventful and saw Evans win again by 10 seconds from Neuville (who however said he was never as afraid of a rally as this morning!), while Ogier was 39 seconds behind and Rovanpera at 65. All the drivers complained about The puddles at the beginning of the private trip caused aquaplaning, and many of them (Rovanperä, Tänak, Ogier…) also expressed their regret at the lack of visibility due to the fog on their car windows. Finally, it was WRC2 driver Andreas Mikkelsen who scored for the third time behind the wheel of his Skoda, finding himself fourth overall behind the Evans-Neuville-Ogier trio, who were at the time 43 seconds back.

Stage 4 was canceled due to weather conditions, and during Stage SS5, which consisted of a second pass through the Isegami Tunnel, it was Katsuta who came out better, despite his mechanical problems, ahead of Neuville by three seconds and Ogier by sixteen seconds. Elfyn Evans was less impressive, conceding 19 seconds to the Japanese, but retained the lead by ten seconds over the Belgian. But Neuville did not stay in the race for victory for long. After 100 meters from SS6, he left the road and collided with a tree. Although the driver and co-driver escaped unharmed, their Hyundai suffered and they were also forced to retire. The other competitors had no problems, and Evans was 44 seconds ahead of Ogier overall. Stage 7, where the water was much lower, did not open up much of a gap, and the Welshman now leads by 51 seconds over the Frenchman, ahead of tonight’s special at Toyota Stadium (2.1km).

WRC Rally – WRC / Japan
Rankings after SS7 (out of 22) – Friday, November 17, 2023
1- Elvin Evans – Scott Martin (Britain – United Kingdom / Toyota) with a time of 1 hour and 23″20″7
2- Sébastien Ogier – Vincent Landis (FRA-FRA/Toyota) 50″9
3- Kale Rovanpera – Jan Halttunen (FIN-FIN/Toyota) 2’07″4
4- Andreas Mikkelsen – Torsten Eriksen (Nor-Nor/Skoda) with a time of 2’56″3
5- Gregoire Munster – Luis Luca (Luxembourg/Ford) 2’59″5

Special stage winners
Novell: 1 (ES1)
Evans: 2 (SS2, SS3)
Katsuta: 3 (ES5, ES6, ES7)

SS4 has been cancelled



Source link

Commentaires