Thierry Neuville kickstarted his Rally Japan recovery on Saturday morning to close in on the World Rally Championship points-paying positions, while title rival Ott Tanak witnessed his lead trimmed by Elfyn Evans.
Neuville, now driving a fully-functioning Hyundai i20N after Friday’s power issue, managed to haul himself up tot 11th spot as Tanak kept his championship hopes alive by continuing to lead the rally.
Evans cut Tanak's lead to 16.3s after stage 11, before the final test of the loop was cancelled due to safety reasons.
M-Sport-Ford Adrian Fourmaux held third, ahead of Toyota duo Sebastien Ogier and Takamoto Katsuta, with M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster in sixth.
Hyundai’s work overnight to repair a turbo issue that severely hampered Neuville proved successful as the Belgian returned to action on Saturday with an i20 N producing full power.
Neuville’s mission to recover from 15th to the top 10 and the points-paying positions was further assisted by Hyundai deploying team orders. The team instructed the returning Andreas Mikkelsen, who crashed on stage five on Friday, to check into stage 10 late to improve Neuville’s road position.
Neuville tackled the all-new Mt.Kasagi stage (16.47km) with caution but was still able to post the fifth fastest time, which helped the Belgian climb to 13th spot, after WRC2 runners Jan Solans and Josh McErlean suffered terminal damage during the stage.
“Finally the car is working and we can get some speed. Obviously today is all about getting back in the points trying to maximise the day,” said Neuville.
Munster set an impressive pace to log a benchmark time that looked set to give the M-Sport driver a first WRC stage win. However, Evans denied the Luxembourger as the Toyota driver eclipsed the time by three seconds.
Rally leader Tanak matched Munster’s time to further outline what was one of the Ford’s best runs this season, but the former’s effort resulted in his lead over Evans being trimmed to 17.9s.
In the battle for third, Fourmaux managed to increase his 0.1s overnight advantage to 5.2s over Toyota’s Katsuta following a strong run from the Frenchman.
Katsuta responded to Forumaux’s pace in stage 11 (Nenoue Kougen 11.60km) as the fight for the podium took another twist. The local hero was 5.6s faster than the M-Sport driver, who unlike his Toyota rival was running one hard tyre, to snatch third spot by 0.4s.
“Of course, it would be nice to get a podium but it is not the target for me this weekend, I just follow the team strategy,” said Katsuta.
At the front, Tanak felt he was too cautious as he dropped another 1.6s to Evans which further reduced his lead over the Toyota driver to 16.3s.
"So much information that it is so cautious, but difficult to drive over it all the time even if you know there is nothing there,” said Tanak.
Team-mate and championship rival Neuville made the most of the stage’s fast and flowing nature to make further inroads up the leaderboard.
Neuville also took advantage of his road position to win the stage, leaving him only 22.5s adrift of 10th - the final points-paying position - held by WRC2 driver and former Formula 1 pilot Heikki Kovalainen.
There was further drama in the battle for third in the final stage of the loop (stage 12, Ena 22.79km).
Katsuta was lucky not to avoid a heavy impact when he lost the rear of his GR Yaris which was sent into a half spin. The stoppage cost 10s dropping the Japanese driver from third to fifth behind Fourmaux and Ogier.
Ogier had set the benchmark time in the stage to close the gap to Fourmaux in third to 3.4s, with 5.7s covering the trio of drivers in the podium fight.
"When it is twisty like that I struggle with the front then I lose a bit of confidence then I lose the brakes," said Fourmaux.
The stage, however, was stopped before rally leader Tanak and rival Evans could enter the test due to an unspecified safety reason.
Organisers later revealed that an unauthorised vehicle blocked the road before Evans began his run, with nominal times awarded to the rally's top two.
Those times reduced the gap by a further second to leave a 15.3s buffer between the Hyundai and Toyota drivers.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin maintained his lead in seventh overall ahead of Sami Pajari, who is on course to seal the WRC2 title.
The loop of stages will be repeated this afternoon followed by second run through the Toyota Stadium super special to conclude Saturday’s action.
