On November 6 in Aichi’s Kuragaike Park, the 2025 Rally Japan opened with SS1, where Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä (GR Yaris Rally1) set the fastest time in what will be his final Rally Japan before moving to formula racing. Earlier in the day, teammate Elfyn Evans topped the shakedown with Takamoto Katsuta second, confirming Toyota’s strong pace ahead of the rally’s six stages scheduled for Day 2.
Elfyn EVANS
Not the best afternoon for us, especially the opening stage. We lost a lot of time. Otherwise, we aren’t too far behind, but not that happy with today. I think the feeling in the car isn’t as efficient as we need to go faster. I’m pushing more but going slower. So we need to find some more performance. It’s all very close and everyone’s trying to win. Ultimately, it’s the result at the end of a rally that counts.
Some places on the road were dirty but others dry and grippy. Some elements of the car were better this morning. Some parts of the setting worked well and others different. It is always a challenge to get it right.
Sébastien OGIER
I think we can be pleased. It has been a good day. We had a good morning and pushed harder in the afternoon. I rarely push to the maximum. I always leave enough room to be in control. In the first pass there is always some uncertainty about many parameters that very often cause me not to give my maximum speed. But often in the afternoon when I feel like everything is dialed in I can push a bit harder. So we have created a reasonable gap and it’s nice to be in this situation. Of course, we need to beat Elfyn, that’s the goal we came to in the week. Our other goal is to win the rally. The Super Sunday is going to play a big role but we have made a good start.
Kalle ROVANPERÄ
We pushed really hard, obviously we needed to. Tomorrow will aim to have a bit of enjoyment and climb up position. The car was running well in the afternoon. Tomorrow we will try to get up to the top 10. Not the best start. It is what it is. It seems we’ll be the first car on the road tomorrow. So we will try to enjoy the driving. We don’t really have a chance to win the rally but we will try to catch all the Rally 2 cars and see where we land. The weather looks like the weather and although we can’t change the set up that much we will try to be as prepared as possible.
Takamoto KATSUTA
Of course it’s nice to be in 2nd place. It could be better, could be worse as always. A bit up and down. Sometimes I was running really well in the car and other times I was struggling. Not sure why but maybe we can figure it out tonight. One of the trickiest sections in Sagami I didn’t push too hard but Seb took a lot of speed in there. So maybe I could have pushed harder there. We knew we might lose a bit of time. But it’s a long weekend and it looks like the weather might be tricky so anything can happen. I can push harder, but we need to find a balance in the stages that are a little different from today. The surface will be a bit different. The tarmac feels like it has more grip, so I need to see how it works with this car and this tire.
Sami PAJARI
It’s still just the beginning. A lot can happen. We had a fairly solid day and close fight with the others. We were only a few seconds different in a lot of places. I’m quite happy with it but obviously I’d like to run a little faster. It’s nice to see how well we are performing. But it’s not a miracle, was hoping for something like this and I knew that if I got a good setup in the car I could get a good result. At other tarmac rallies this year I have performed well so I am confident.
Ott TÄNAK
I don’t think today has been too much of a challenge for us. We have been consistent. We’re not really on the pace but not having huge problems. I am mostly happy with the car.
Thierry NEUVILLE
We’ve been having an issue all day since stage 2. We’ve been doing set up changes all day to try to get more speed. A new differential and dampers. Tomorrow we’ll start again with something new. We need to try some new things to get more speed. We’re going to work on the kinematics.
Adrien FOURMAUX
I fought quite well with the balance we had today. I didn’t really change the car settings and push with the car I had. I think that worked because we overtook Sami and we’re not so far away from the rest of the top group. I can’t really explain how but we are running quite well at the moment. It’s never easy to go into a rally immediately with a perfect balance, so I’ve taken the approach of pushing with the balance I have and thinking about changing the settings later.
