Kalle Rovanpera takes overnight lead of WRC Rally Japan after opening stage

Kalle Rovanpera takes overnight lead of WRC Rally Japan after opening stage

6th November 2025 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera stands as the overnight leader after the first stage of the World Rally Championship’s Rally Japan, as the remaining title contenders spread out. 

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool

Rally Japan has officially begun with a short 2.75km sprint through the Kuragaike Park stage which also made up the Shakedown test earlier on today, which was a short, narrow and technical course. 

It was a clean run through the course as all 10 Rally1 contenders completed the first stage without issue. However, there is now an early gap amongst the championship contenders. 

Rovanpera topped the opening super special stage with a time of two minutes and 7.5 seconds. The two-time world champion, who is on a charge to secure his third world title before he departs the WRC, snatched the rally lead away from Hyundai’s championship contender, Ott Tanak, by a tenth.

Itinerary: what is the official schedule for WRC Rally Japan?

Home hero, Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta rounded out the top three finishing 0.2s behind Rovanpera’s leading time. 

Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier and Sami Pajari completed the top five, in fourth and fifth, respectively. The eight-time world champion finished four-tenths behind Rovanpera after the first stage, in his quest to right his wrongs after the Central European Rally and fight for a ninth world title. 

The returning championship leader, Elfyn Evans found himself in sixth after topping the timing boards on the same stage during shakedown. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and, the reigning world champion, Thierry Neuville followed the Welshman, in seventh and eighth. 

Evans tops first pass of Rally Japan shakedown as championship rivals remain on heels

This left M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster and Joshua McErlean to complete the Rally1 contenders, in ninth and 11th, respectively. The 2025 WRC2 champions, Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson, found themselves inside the top 10, sandwiched in between the Fords, in 10th. 

However, it is not a nominated point-scoring event for the Swede/British pair.

The action continues on Friday morning, in Japan, with six stages lining up the first full day of the event. The Inabu Shitara stage will kick off the action at 07:11am (local time).  

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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.

CategoryNews 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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