Rally Japan has come alive. After a twelve long years since it was last held in Hokkaido, Rally Japan finally returned as the season finale of the 2022 World Rally Championship.
The event moved from Hokkaido to Aichi and Gifu prefectures with the surface changing to tarmac from gravel. The stages in Aichi and Gifu are on classic narrow and twisty forest roads in mainland Japan, a stark contrast to the Hokkaido’s flowing high-speed stages which are uncharacteristic in Japan. After the recce, most of the crews showed their surprise about the uniqueness of the stages that feature a series of low-speed tight turns, much different from the tarmac stages they know.
The Service Park was located in Toyota Stadium that hosted the 2019 Rugby World Cup matches. As for the itinerary, Day 1 commenced with the Super Special Stage on the night of the 10th Thursday and then went around Toyota city and deep into Shitara town. On 11th Friday Day 2, the crews tackled the stages in Shinshiro and Okazaki cities. The Day 3 stages stretched across the prefectural border between Aichi and Gifu.
Although Kalle Rovanperä has already won the Driver’s title and Toyota has clinched the Manufacturer’s Crown it’s Toyota’s home rally. They could not afford a loss. Meanwhile, it was also a rally for Hyundai, Toyota’s biggest rival throughout the season, to avenge their loss. Ford withdrew two entries at the eleventh hour from this long haul event. As a result, nine Rally1 cars, four from Toyota, three from Hyundai, and two from Ford, started the first-ever tarmac event outside Europe.
In addition to Takamoto Katsuta from Aichi in his Rally1 car, there were some familiar names such as Toshi Arai, who used to drive in the international arena, and Norihiko Katsuta, father of Takamoto.

Toyota led the first stages

The 2022 Rally Japan kicked off with an opening ceremony in Toyota Stadium in front of a huge crowd. It was followed by SS1 on Kuragaike Park Super Special Stage. Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier posted the fastest time on the introductory stage in the park. Craig Breen of Ford followed closely behind with a 0.1-second gap, and the 3rd fastest was Ott Tänak driving a Hyundai another 0.1 seconds behind. Katsuta was 7th, 1.9 seconds behind the leader. Then in further down the field Toshi Arai, who switched to the Citroen Rally2 car from Subaru this time, had a major crash that led to the cancellation of the stage.  All the remaining crews had to come back to Toyota Stadium without competing on SS 1.
It was just the beginning of the dramas to come. On Day 2, Rovanperä won the opening SS2. Behind the Finn, the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 driven by Dani Sordo suddenly caught fire, forcing the stage to be suspended. Additionally, SS3 was also cancelled to compensate for the time lost in the suspension of the previous stage. Elfyn Evans of Toyota and Thierry Neuville of Hyundai shared the fastest time on SS4. Gus Greensmith of Ford, on the other hand, crashed on the stage. After that, the stage was red-flagged as well because an unauthorised vehicle was alleged to have entered the stage while the competition was in progress. The participants in Rally2 and crews in the lower running orders hardly had an opportunity to show their skills in Japan in the first half of Day 1.
In the afternoon on Day 1, SS7, a repeat of SS4, was cancelled due to broken safety barriers caused by the crash involving Greensmith. While only two stages were held, Evans won SS5 following the previous stage to widen the gap over 2nd overall and Rovanperä won SS6. At the end of a turbulent Day 1, Evans led the rally. Neuville finished three seconds behind the leader while Rovanperä was further 2.1-seconds behind that. Local hero Takamoto Katsuta finished the first competitive day in 5th, 20.6 second behind the leader.
Unlike the previous day Day 2 progressed fairly smoothly with some fierce fights among the front runners. Evans, the rally leader, extended the gap with Neuville by recording the fastest time on SS8. However, the Belgian driver reduced the time difference to Evans when he later won SS9. Meanwhile Rovanperä, running 3rd, lost ground because of a puncture. The battle for victory started to see some attrition of contenders. Tänak won SS10 and at the halfway mark of the day, Evans led the rally with Neuville following 6.5 second behind.

Hyundai’s Gain, Toyota’s Misfortune

Evans seemed to have started increasing the lead gradually but Neuville began fighting back in the afternoon. He was consistently quicker than the Toyota driver and finally took the lead position on SS12, the second stage in the afternoon.  With one of the two runs of Okazaki City SSS being cancelled at the end of Day 2, Neuville successfully increased his advantage over Evans to 4.0 seconds by winning the final SSS. As Tänak was approximately 40 seconds behind the top contenders, the fight for the win was eventually narrowed down to the two. Following Tänak was Katsuta, who had a close call in SS9 when he went off the road. The time gap to the front and to the following opened up and his 4th place was becoming certain.
On the final Day 3, the crews crossed the prefectural border from Aichi to Gifu. Evans reduced his deficit to Neuville to 0.6 seconds on SS15, the first stage of the day with his commitment to bringing some local success to his team. It looked as if an upset victory was just around the corner for him on SS16, when Evans lost more than 1 minute 30 seconds due to a puncture on this difficult stage, which had a variety of sections in speed ranges and on a wide range of road surfaces. It was game over. Neuville cruised to win for the remaining three stages. With Tänak securing 2nd, Hyundai made a triumphant 1-2 finish in Toyota’s homeland. The last spot of the podium went to Takamoto Katsuta. The Japanese ace, who had expressed his target to get on the podium before the event, completed the season in flying colours, finishing the rally in the best position in the Toyota team.