Rally Japan - 3rd Day - 1st Loop: Ogier out in front as Neuville retires due to mechanical issues

At the end of Saturday morning, Sebastien Ogier is still leading Rally Japan with Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta following him.

Sebastien Ogier remains the rally leader of Rally Japan after the end of Saturday morning, but Elfyn Evans managed to cut his margin as he was quicker than Ogier in all morning stages.

Elfyn Evans grabbed the second place from Takamoto Katsuta at the end of Stage 8 with their gap being at 0,3 seconds in favor of Evans after SS8. Furthermore, he is 2 seconds behind Ogier and set the fastest time in SS10, so he can fight for the lead of the rally on Saturday afternoon.

Takamoto Katsuta does the 1-2-3 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, but he still can fight for the second position as his gap from Evans is at  seconds.

Adrien Fourmaux is still in fourth position overall and managed to set the fastest time in SS8 and SS9.

Sami Pajari completes the top five and lost more ground compared to Fourmaux as the Finn driver had a half spin and hit a bank 6,5Km into SS9.

Ott Tanak is sixth overall and still was struggling to find pace with his i20N.

Gregoire Munster overtook Thierry Neuville for the seventh place overall at the end of Stage 8 despite the fact that he mentioned understeer with his Puma in SS9.

Kalle Rovanpera completes the top ten as he managed to take back many positions on Saturday morning.

Thierry Neuville was forced to retire on the road section before the start of Stage 9 as his i20N had an oil lead and a broken driveshaft resulting in driving on road mode in SS8.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after Stage 10:

Photo Credits: Toyota