Elfyn Evans keeps Oliver Solberg at bay after Rally Japan morning loop
30th May 2026Toyota’s Elfyn Evans remains the World Rally Championship’s Rally Japan leader, keeping ahead of Oliver Solberg, who is charging up behind him after Saturday’s morning loop.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
Evans went into Saturday’s action with a narrow lead of 15.7 seconds ahead of his closest rivals, and teammates, Solberg and Sebastien Ogier, after Friday’s six stages.
However, the young, second-placed Swede has taken a chunk out of the Welshman’s advantage after the first three stages on Saturday morning. Solberg has sealed two of three stage victories, trading blows with Evans in the morning action, securing stage wins on SS7 and SS9, with Evans taking the stage victory on SS8.
As such, the Welshman’s lead has fallen to 10.6 seconds between the two leading drivers. Whilst Ogier finds himself just outside contention for the rally lead, sitting 20.1 seconds adrift of Evan’s leading time.
Elfyn Evans tops opening day of Rally Japan ahead of Oliver Solberg
However, it was not a simple morning for some of the drivers. On the opening test of SS7, Obara 1, M-Sport Ford’s Joshua McErlean struggled as the first driver out on track. Not for sweeping, but rather an issue with his handbrake.
Thankfully, the problem was resolved ahead of the following test, with the Irish crew finding a solution on the road section.
Later on, on SS9, Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville suffered his own problem with his handbrake, dropping 22.6s to Solberg’s fastest time, and losing positions to his teammate Adrien Fourmaux, dropping to seventh.
It marks a poor start to Saturday for the Belgian world champion after initially starting the day in fifth, but immediately losing position on the overall timesheets to Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who went fifth overall.
Despite a poor start from Katsuta on Friday’s opening day, the Japanese driver is fighting back on home soil. After overtaking Neuville in the timesheets on the first test of Saturday, the home hero looks to be in a position to challenge for a top-four finish.
His teammate, Sami Pajari, is currently in no-man’s land and remains outside contention for a race win, sitting 52.5 seconds adrift of Evans. However, the Japanese driver currently sits 18.4 seconds away from the fourth-placed Finn.
Next up is a tyre fitting zone, which will give the teams and drivers a chance to put new rubber boots onto their Rally1 machines. The next stage will be the immediate second pass of Mt. Kasagi at 1:05pm local (05:05am BST).
So who currently sits where ahead of Saturday’s action?
- Elfyn Evans, Toyota – 1hr 50m 48s
- Oliver Solberg, Toyota +10.6s
- Sebastien Ogier, Toyota +20.1s
- Sami Pajari, Toyota +52.5s
- Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota +1m 10.9s
- Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai +1m 35.1s
- Thierry Neuville, Hyundai +1m 41.9s
- Hayden Paddon, Hyundai +2m 59.4s
- Jon Armstrong, M-Sport Ford +3m 38.8s
Rally1’s outside the top 10
Joshua McErlean currently sits in 12th place overall inside the leaderboard, 6m 18.1s away from Evans’ elapsed time.
Read more WRC here:
- Elfyn Evans tops opening day of Rally Japan ahead of Oliver Solberg
- Takamoto Katsuta looking forward to different Rally Japan conditions
- Thierry Neuville expecting ‘difficult’ weekend in Rally Japan after securing first 2026 win
- Ogier lays down the gauntlet in Rally Japan shakedown
- Sebastien Ogier fastest first pass in WRC Rally Japan Shakedown
- Rally Japan 2026: Full WRC weekend weather forecast
Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from ApexMotorsports.co.uk!
You can also support us on Patreon or our website!
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.
Kamron Kent
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.
