DOLGELLAU’S Elfyn Evans is in joint sixth place after Rally Japan got under way on Thursday.

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team claimed the early lead with Kalle Rovanperä as Rally Japan got underway in Toyota City on Thursday.

Arriving in Japan having recently secured a fifth consecutive manufacturers’ title, the team and its drivers have received a warm welcome as always as the hometown heroes of the passionate local fans.

Action got underway with the pre-event shakedown on Thursday morning in Kuragaike Park, where championship leader Elfyn Evans set the fastest time on the first of two runs.

Two of his team-mates completed a GR YARIS Rally1 1-2-3, with local star Takamoto Katsuta in second and Rovanperä third.

Finding a good feeling on the shakedown would be important given that the rally’s opening competitive stage also took place over the same 2.75-kilometre route in the afternoon.

This time it was Rovanperä who went fastest to take the early rally lead, just 0.1 seconds ahead of Hyundai driver Ott Tänak.

All five GR YARIS Rally1 drivers placed within a top seven covered by just 0.8s. Katsuta was third, followed closely by Sébastien Ogier and Sami Pajari in fourth and fifth respectively, with Evans in joint sixth.

Elfyn Evans said: “We always get such a warm welcome here in Japan and it’s nice to get the rally started.

“There was a bit of rain overnight so conditions were tricky in the shakedown this morning, but the feeling with the car was all OK.

“In the first stage we maybe didn’t have the cleanest run; with the stage drying out you would expect the grip to be better, but there were still some tricky places.

“We have to wait and see what the weather does over the rest of the rally.

“During recce the stages looked fairly dry and clean compared to previous years, but let’s see how it turns out.”

End of day one (Thursday):

1, Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2m07.5s;

2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +0.1s

3 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.3s

4 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.4s

5 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.5s

6= Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.8s

6= Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +0.8s

8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1.0s

9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +3.1s

10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +3.9s

(Results as of 18:00 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?

Friday features a loop of three familiar stages to the east of Toyota City – Inabu/Shitara, Shinshiro and Isegami’s Tunnel – that will each be repeated following mid-day service, forming a total of 108.3 competitive kilometres.