A sixth victory of the season for Sébastien Ogier moves him just three points behind Elfyn Evans with one round to go
Photography by Toyota
Words by Alasdair Lindsay, Head of Digital Strategy
Sébastien Ogier has set up a thrilling finale for the World Rally Championship drivers’ title with victory on Rally Japan, narrowly beating team-mate and title rival Elfyn Evans to the win.
Ogier and Evans began the final day of Rally Japan separated by 6.5 seconds and it initially seemed as if Evans would snatch the lead away on Sunday’s very first stage, having been 7.5s up on the splits at one point of the Nukata test.
Heavy rain had begun falling during Sunday’s first test and left drivers searching for grip in the unpredictable conditions, on which Evans initially capitalized.
Those conditions contributed to Adrien Fourmaux’s trip off-road and into trees, which ripped the passenger door off his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 and left plenty of debris and pollution on the road. The aftermath caught Evans unaware and meant almost all the time he’d gained was then lost again.
The first half of that stage had acted as a wake-up call for Ogier, who admitted he hadn’t found the right rhythm to start the Nukata test. The eight-time world champion then outpaced Evans on all the remaining stages, clinching the win by 11.6s.
A dramatic powerstage was also won by Ogier by a mere 0.096s over Evans, clinching a maximum 35-point score in the process.
“It’s been a challenging weekend because after the rain today nothing was certain; it was the start of a new rally this morning,” said Ogier.
“Big setup change this morning and the car very quickly felt good, we didn’t have to do anything, so well done team, it’s amazing to count on that. When there was not too much water on the road we can enjoy.”
Evans was marginally beaten by Ogier across all three points-scoring opportunities; he finished 5.1s adrift in the Sunday classification, meaning Ogier closed the gap in the title race to only three points with just the Saudi Arabia season finale remaining.
“I was going to say it’s fun but that’s a bit of a lie about today,” said Evans. “Overall it’s been a fun weekend to try and fight with Seb. Today it’s been very difficult to do that; conditions have been very difficult and he’s driven very well.”
Kalle Rovanperä remains mathematically in the title race but realistically needs both Evans and Ogier to run into severe difficulties at the season finale in Saudi Arabia to have any hope of becoming champion.
Rovanperä remains in championship contention, but has fallen adrift of his team-mates
His chance of a strong result was dashed by a broken control arm on his rear-left wheel, caused by an initial impact against a curb on stage two that weakened said arm; a second whack on the rear-left when he went too fast through a corner on SS3 then broke it entirely and cost him several minutes.
His Sunday pace meant he bagged 12 points, though was unable to score more thanks to some badly-timed rain on the final loop that was unfavorable for his road position. He was able to climb to sixth place overall by the finish, up from the 23rd place he’d occupied after SS4.
“Definitely not the weekend we wanted to have but sometimes it’s like this,” said Rovanperä. “Just a bit too inconsistent with results this year.”
Fourmaux’s demise promoted Sami Pajari to third place, allowing the Toyota junior driver to clinch his first career WRC podium finish in his 16th event as a Rally1 driver.
Pajari had been fifth for much of the rally but was promoted to fourth by Takamoto Katsuta’s demise on Saturday, when the home hero had broken the power steering on his GR Yaris Rally1 by smashing through plastic barriers on the Mt. Kasagi test.
“It’s a really cool feeling,” said Pajari at the finish. “I think it was already close a couple of times and it’s a really special feeling to get the first podium.”
Pajari took the first WRC podium of his career in third place
Ott Tänak finished as the sole Hyundai runner in fourth place, 1m01.5s adrift of Pajari’s Toyota. There were no major dramas for the 2019 world champion: the chasm between him and the leading Toyotas had been on pace alone. But a differential swap ahead of Sunday’s action revealed what had caused his dearth of pace beforehand.
“It’s not only been tough, it’s been extremely challenging to come through,” said Tänak.
“It seems like we had issues since the beginning and this morning we changed the rear differential and the car was back to normal. Somehow we always struggled but we didn’t know what it was. At least [the reason] came out but super frustrating, that’s for sure.”
Grégoire Munster did just enough to cling onto fifth place from the charging Rovanperä, both his and M-Sport’s first top-five finish since Safari Rally Kenya in March.
The sole Ford Puma had struggled for speed on the final day, running approximately two seconds per kilometer off the pace; Munster had felt he was on a knife edge of grip with the unfamiliar wet tire and was unwilling to take bigger risks with a season-equalling best result on the line.
“We started the weekend and it was a big struggle but everyone put the effort in to get the feeling better. It’s the small battles that we win; a top five in our season is a good result and we’re happy with that.”
Cachón became the fifth new driver to win a round of WRC2 this year
Oliver Solberg was comfortably the fastest Rally2 car in seventh overall but wasn’t registered for WRC2 points, having completed his season and mathematically wrapping up the title in Chile.
That left Alejandro Cachón to secure a career-first WRC2 win, outdriving Škoda driver Nikolay Gryazin in Sunday’s treacherous conditions to win by 54.6s.
“It’s incredible,” said Cachón. “I love this feeling. A big thanks to my team, Teo Martín Motorsport: not a lot of people know but until Wednesday we did not have a car here, we had problems with the boat. So they took a plane with a new car to come here and to start the rally.”
Jan Solans had made a strong start to the final day, initially stealing second place from Gryazin only for his bid to unravel with a spin on Nukata 2 that wedged him on the edge of the road.
His navigator Rodrigo Sanjuán had to climb out of the car and push the GR Yaris Rally2 back on the road, costing them over a minute but ensuring they finished the rally in third.
Words:Alasdair Lindsay
Tags: Rally Japan, Rally Japan 2025, Sébastien Ogier, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 9, 2025 DirtFish
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