Adrien Fourmaux takes WRC Rally Japan lead

Adrien Fourmaux takes WRC Rally Japan lead

21st November 2024 0 By Kamron Kent

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux has taken the lead of the World Rally Championship’s season finale, Rally Japan, a career first for the Frenchman. 

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

The 2024 WRC calendar’s finale event has 21 stages, but only one was completed on Thursday, the opening day. The 2.13km Toyota Stadium Super Special Stage ignited the thrilling season finale, which will crown a team and driver champion this weekend. 

Fourmaux took the top hours after the first stage with a blistering time of one minute and 44 seconds on the clock. This gave the Frenchman a milestone in his WRC career as he now officially leads a WRC event, after one stage of action. 

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, one of two drivers in contention for the WRC title, missed the stage win by only 0.5 seconds as Toyota’s local hero Takamoto Katsuta completed the top three, 0.8s behind. 

Katsuta’s teammates Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ogier completed the opening stage in fourth and fifth respectively. 

With Toyota’s three drivers inside the top five, it applies early pressure on Hyundai as the Japanese team looks to overhaul a 15-point deficit to secure their fourth consecutive championship.  

Hyundai’s championship leader, Thierry Neuville completed the opening 2.13km test in sixth, 2.2 seconds off the pace. As such, the Belgian crew, Neuville and Marijn Wydaeghe, currently have a nine-point loss on Tanak but provisionally remain on course to secure their maiden titles. 

M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster could only muster seventh place in the overall order, 2.8s off his stage-winning teammate. This left Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen down in eighth to round off the Rally1 runners. The Norweigan had power issues mid-stage and he explained he was out of fuel at the stage end, suggesting they “almost didn’t reach the finish line.”

In terms of the team’s standings, as it currently stands – which should be taken with a pinch of salt – after one stage, Hyundai remain with the advantage over Toyota. 

However, the action continues on Friday at 07:44am (local), 10:44pm (GMT, Thursday) with 20 more stages left to complete across three days.

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryFormula 1 Formula Series News Rallying WRC

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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