Just four stages stand between Kalle Rovanperä and back-to-back FIA World Rally Championship titles after his only title rival Elfyn Evans crashed out of Central European Rally on Saturday.

Having dominated Thursday’s treacherous tests in the Czech Republic to build a commanding rally lead, 23-year-old Rovanperä was already doing more than enough to successfully defend his 2022 WRC drivers’ crown.

A spin on Saturday’s second stage allowed Thierry Neuville to slash the Finn’s advantage by more than half, but the dynamic changed later in the morning when Rovanperä’s Toyota GR Yaris team-mate Evans, who had been sitting third overall, crashed out the rally.

Evans needed to outscore his colleague by at least one point at this penultimate round to keep the fight going, but he came unstuck on a slippery right-hand bend and slid into a barn. The Welshman will restart on Sunday in a desperate bid to salvage bonus points from the Wolf Power Stage.

Sacrificing his chances of the outright rally win to focus on his championship prospects, Rovanperä dialled back his speed. Neuville was left to build a 26.2-second overnight lead in his Hyundai i20 N.

“It’s good to be at the finish of the day,” said Rovanperä, who simply needs a drama-free run through the closing stages to clinch the title. “It’s tough out there. I think these are the most tough Tarmac rally conditions I have ever seen.”

Neuville added: “All afternoon we tried to manage the gap and I am happy to finish the day in the lead of the rally. We are following our target.”

Ott Tänak ensured that all three top-line manufacturers ended the day on the podium, bringing his Ford Puma to the end in a lonely third overall. A non-functioning handbrake caused the M-Sport man some frustrations in SS14, and he trailed Rovanperä by over one minute with Sébastien Ogier 31.1sec behind.

The battle for fifth place was raging between Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen. Katsuta struggled to feel confident on the greasy asphalt roads in the morning but upped his pace in the afternoon to claim the position by 10.9sec.

Puma hotshot Grégoire Munster was seventh overall ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet. Adrien Fourmaux and Emil Lindholm, leader of the WRC2 category in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2, completed the leaderboard.

Sunday’s finale boasts two stages, each run twice, across two countries. Böhmerwald in Austria is first up before Passauer Land in Germany, the second pass of which forms the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage.

Leading positions after Saturday:
1. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe                        Hyundai i20 N                    2h 18m 34.5s
2. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen                       Toyota GR Yaris                 +26.2s
3. O Tänak / M Järveoja                                                 Ford Puma                          +1m 49.1s
4. S Ogier / V Landais                                      Toyota GR Yaris                 +2m 20.2s
5. T Katsuta / A Johnston                              Toyota GR Yaris                 +2m 47.9s
6. T Suninen / M Markkula                           Hyundai i20 N                    +2m 58.8s

Thierry Neuville claimed victory on the final day of the World Rally Championship in Japan denying Toyota a home victory to go with their titles.

The final day was going to be a showdown between Neuville and Toyota’s Eflyn Evans, however there was to be an added dynamic to proceedings. There was debate within the service park as to whether the threat of rain was real or fall later in the day and not interfere with the rally.

Neuville and Evans went in different directions, the Belgian deciding to take some wet weather rubber whereas Evans and Toyota decided that the rain wouldn’t arrive so took a half and half split of hard and soft tyres.

The stage was set but the result didn’t get to play out over the afternoon as a miscommunication between Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin, saw Evans run wide on a right-hand corner and nudge a kerb with his rear-wheel. This led to a puncture and saw the Welshman fall down the order and out of contention as the change took 1min 30s to complete.

Although now irrelevant in terms of competition, Neuville and his Hyundai squad chose correctly as rain arrived for the final two stages. The rally leader would cruise to the finish though with a 1min 11.3s gap back to his teammate Ott Tanak, the 1-2 really rubbing salt in Toyota’s fairy tale ending.

Upon finishing, Neuville said: “It feels great…It wasn’t an easy weekend or an easy year, but to end with a victory after showing good speed all weekend is a great way to end the season. Our weather guys did an incredible job this weekend so thanks to them and thanks to everybody.”

Tanak was also pleased with a podium in what was his final rally for the Hyundai team: “It’s good to finish on the podium. Extremely quickly in the end. We didn’t have too much speed on the last two events on tarmac but anyway, we won some rallies and we had quite a few podiums. Let’s see what the future brings.”

Completing the podium was Takamoto Katsuta after Evan’s issues. The hometown driver had a minute deficit to Tanak but was jubilant to finish third in his home rally. “Huge thanks to the team and all the supports on the stage and also on the road sections. Unfortunately, my teammates had a lot of problems, but I have no words.”

Sebastien Ogier spent the rally playing catchup and only finished 12s back from the podium. An opening day puncture left the Frenchman wondering what might have been in different circumstances as will have Evans who eventually fell to fifth. Gus Greensmith finished sixth on what has ultimately been a year to forget for the M-sport Ford squad.

Final top six

1. Neuville 2hr 43min 52.3s
2. Tanak +1min 11.1s
3. Katsuta +2min 11.3s
4. Ogier +2min 23.6s
5. Evans +4min 5.1s
6. Greensmith +4min 7.4s

Thierry Neuville ended the Friday leg of Ypres Rally Belgium in the lead by 2.5s followed by his Hyundai teammate, Ott Tanak. Elfyn Evans would round out the top 3 after being given a 10s time penalty for arriving at the final stage start a minute late.

The opening day threw up drama from the off, as Kalle Rovanpera rolled his Toyota on SS2 after winning the SS1. The Finn, who had a chance to claim the title this weekend, understeered into a ditch which sent the car into a barrel roll. Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen weren’t harmed, but any chance of sealing the title here had now gone.

With Rovanpera out, his teammate Evans took up the baton as the leading Toyota at the head of the field, The Welshman battled Ott Tanak through the morning as they traded times as neither felt completely comfortable on the winding narrow roads, but Evans would lead going into the afternoon loop.

Neuville was another driver that would lack some confidence in the opening exchanges, but he only shipped 6.5s to the leading pair to run third. Yaris driver, Esapekka Lappi finished the morning fourth overall and had the benefit of finishing the last morning stage in the dry.

The rain that appeared meant that Ford man, Adrien Fourmaux would be jumped due to losing over a minute due to conditions.

In the afternoon, however, it would be Neuville that would make the biggest impression. Some set-up tweaks gave the Belgian the confidence and would be fastest through the subsequent four tests to jump his teammate and Evans.

Tanak would be Mr. Consistent for the rest of the run, never dropping out the top three times, the Estonian would be there to pounce on Evan’s misfortunes.

Despite taking over the lead, Evans’s day would slowly unravel due to putting a single wet weather tyre onto his car due to damaging one of the slicks. This would provide a performance disadvantage, but the bad luck would be hammered home when he received a time penalty for appearing at the final stage one minute late.

Whilst the top three had their cars geared towards a dry set-up, the rest of the field went the other way expecting a lot of rain. Lappi would end the day 23.6s back from the top three and 18.8s ahead of fifth-placed Craig Breen.

Evans and Rovanpera wouldn’t be the only Toyota to hit trouble, Takamoto Katsuta finished the day in 18^th due to a transmission problem costing him chunks of time throughout the day.

Day 1 Top 6

1. Neuville 49min 50.4s
2. Tanak +2.5s
3. Evans +13.7s
4. Lappi +37s
5. Breen +56.1s
6. Greensmith +1min 34.5s