TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team occupies the top three positions after Friday on home roads at Rally Japan, with Elfyn Evans leading team-mates Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä after excelling in extremely wet conditions.

The first full day of the rally was also the longest, with 133.26 competitive kilometres on the schedule. Most of this would be driven in two loops of three stages in the mountains of Aichi prefecture, north east of the service park in Toyota City. These incredibly demanding and twisting roads were made more treacherous by heavy rain during the morning which created standing water and affected visibility.

Evans adapted best to the conditions, winning the morning’s opening stage Isegami’s Tunnel (also the longest of the weekend at 23.67 km) and the subsequent Inabu Dam test to open up a lead of 26 seconds. The third stage of the morning loop, Shitara Town, was cancelled due to the conditions.

Evans maintained a strong pace in the afternoon, and with nearest rival Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) retiring in SS6, he returned to Toyota Stadium after SS7 with a lead of 50.9s over Ogier.

Ogier had been just four seconds slower than Evans in SS2 but did drop over 30 seconds in SS3 as all of the leading drivers struggled with vis0ibility to varying degrees. An impact against a barrier in SS5 also cost around 10s, and while the team was able to fix the resultant damage during the evening service, a one-minute penalty was incurred after the 45-minute window was exceeded.

Evans therefore leads by 1m49.9s tonight over Ogier who is in turn 16.7s ahead of Rovanperä. The Finn climbed from seventh place to third in the afternoon having had to sweep a cleaner line for his rivals during the morning loop in particular.

Evans said: "I’m happy to be here tonight and in the lead of the rally. We had very difficult conditions this morning especially with a lot of standing water and a lot of surprises.

"We just tried to pick our way through it, but it felt quite slow at times, particularly in the first stage this morning. It’s really difficult to judge the grip in those conditions, and on these stages you have very little room to go anywhere if misjudge it. This afternoon the grip was a lot better and I didn’t make full use of that in the first stage after service, but it got a bit better after that. It’s been a good day but there’s still a long way to go.”