The second full day of the rally would see the crews tackle 103km’s over seven stages. Andreas and Torstein would restart and open the road, but then the Hyundai team would swap him around with Thierry so the championship leader could open the road.
First up then was SS10 Mt. Kasagi 1 – 16.47 km and Elfyn was fastest from Ott and Gregoire. Thierry was on the move, gaining two positions. His i20 was back working properly and he set the fifth best time.
Next up was SS11 Nenoue Kougen 1 – 11.60 km and Thierry set the best time from Seb and Takamoto. The Japanese star gained a position moving ahead of Adrien and into third overall. Thierry was also gaining positions, now into twelfth place and just around 22 seconds from the points paying positions. The recovery drive was going well this morning.
The final stage before the tyre fitting zone, SS12 Ena 1 – 22.79 km saw the stage interrupted meaning that the top two, Ott and Elfyn did not start the stage along with the WRC2 runners. They were given a notional time, the same as Seb who’d set the fastest time. There was drama for Takamoto who had a spin in the stage, and he dropped down to fifth. He was one of the driver to complete the stage earlier before the interruption.
After the short break came SS13 Mt. Kasagi 2 – 16.47 km and Ott was fastest from Seb and Takamoto. Adrien fell behind his fellow countryman Seb who passed him for third overall. Thierry was now in ninth overall and just three tenths of a second behind eighth placed Sami. Sadly, Elfyns’ pace had deserted him and after winning this stage earlier he could only manage the sixth best time. The Welshman reported understeer sapping his confidence in the corners.
Two proper stages remained the first being SS14 Nenoue Kougen 2 – 11.60 km and Thierry and Seb set an identical time on this one, with Takamoto third. Rally leader Ott was fourth in this one, but with his closest rival Elfyn sixth was still increasing his lead. Thierry was up another position and into eighth place.
The final proper stage then of Saturday’s action, SS15 Ena 2 – 22.79 km and Seb was fastest from Thierry and Adrien. The Frenchman’s pace allowed him to pull away from Takamoto. Meanwhile erstwhile championship leader Thierry had gained another position and was now seventh.
The final stage didn’t see any changes in position and at only 2.15km’s in a stadium is not really rallying anyway.
Let’s take a look at the standings and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day Two
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Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak
“All the stages have been extremely demanding today, very slow in places and seemingly never-ending. At the same time, we’ve had changeable grip and a lot of surprises and some moments. While it’s been another tough day, we had something special in the second loop. Elfyn was definitely winding up this morning, but we were stronger this afternoon to end the day with things still in our favour. We’ve been on it all weekend so far and we will be again tomorrow: our main target is the manufacturers’ championship, and we want to achieve it. The Toyotas are very quick so we all need to give our best so we can hopefully bring it home.”
Round 13, Rally Japan
21 – 24 November 2024
Ott Tanak
Photographer: Austral
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“We’re satisfied that we’ve been able to catch seventh, which didn’t seem very realistic this morning. Of course, it could have been a much better weekend result, but I have faced many setbacks in my career, and I have learnt to stay calm and deal with the situation. I think we managed that very well today, considering we had everything to lose while others had a lot to gain. It could be a big day tomorrow, so we will cross our fingers and try to have a good night sleep, but there is still a fight, and we have to win some more points. Let’s see after a few stages tomorrow where we are and what we have to do.”
Andreas Mikkelsen
“After yesterday’s accident, we wanted to make sure that the car was working optimally after the repairs in service. We ran the morning loop to shakedown the car and ensure everything was working well. As we were happy with the performance and the speed this morning, we decided together with the team to withdraw from the afternoon loop in preparation for a big push tomorrow. There was nothing to be gained today but we have a big opportunity on Sunday to support the team in the manufacturers’ championship fight.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“We made a pretty strong start this morning when the conditions were not easy, and we were hoping to keep the pressure on in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way. The feeling was not so bad in the car but we were struggling just a little bit in the slower speed sections and that was resulting in quite a big time loss. Things were OK in the faster places but there weren’t so many of them. So, we’re looking with the team tonight to understand it and try to put it right for tomorrow, when we need to give a final push and do what we can.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been a positive day for us. We were the fastest over the day with three stage wins, and we got back to the podium places to bank good points for the team, so I think there was not much more we could do. Of course, I would have loved even more but our chances in the manufacturers’ championship are still alive up until the last day of the season, and we need to give it everything. We just have to push for the maximum points from Sunday and hope for some luck on our side, and in rallying you never know what can happen.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“It’s good to reach the end of today: this was one of the main targets for me. There were some difficulties during the day – I had a spin in the last stage of the morning and lost a few seconds there – but I felt some good feelings from the car as well, so I was able to set some good times. Overall, everything was OK. Tomorrow is going to be a very important day for the team as well, so I just need to try and find even better feeling and focus on that.”
Sunday
The final day will see the crews tackle 70km’s over five stages, including the overused 2.15km stadium stage.
