In the WRC2 class, Sami Pajari is safely in second place after Friday.
by Thierry Neuville the dream of the first World Rally Championship title in his career suffered a crash right away on Friday at the Japan Rally.
Neuville experienced a technical fault during the morning run, which took the power out of the car. When there was no proper service break during the day, the Belgian fell to 15th place in the race, almost eight minutes away from the top.
Hyundai’s Ott Tänak leads the rally and can still threaten Neuville’s championship, as the difference before the final weekend of the season was 25 points in favor of Neuville. It is likely that, at least after Saturday’s conditional distribution of points, Neuville’s championship will not be confirmed yet.
– We don’t know what happened. Of course I’m disappointed, but there’s nothing you can do about it. What is certain, however, is that during the end of the race we can no longer afford something like this, Neuville said.
– Before the problem, we were at a safe pace, stuck in the prize place. Everything seemed fine until then. This is frustrating.
In second place is Toyota, which is in the race Elfyn Evans is 20.9 seconds behind Tänak. Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux is third before the host country Takamoto Katsuta.
It’s good to go from Pajar
Competing in Toyota’s Rally2 car Sami Pajari is eighth in the general competition in Japan after Friday and safely second in his class, which would be enough to bring the Finn the championship in the WRC2 class.
– The day was very even. Nikolai Grjazin is far away, but from our point of view things are still going in the right direction, added Pajari, who is more than a minute behind Grjazin, the top driver in the class.
– In the afternoon it was already mentally easier to drive. Of course, there were enough events, but we only had a flat tire in the morning. Without it, everything was under control. It took 40 seconds, but luckily it didn’t seem like a big deal. We drove at a speed that felt good.
After opening day Heikki Kovalainen holds fourth place in the WRC2 class. The gap to the top is just over two minutes.