{"id":2155,"date":"2025-10-15T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/?post_type=news&p=2155"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:51:34","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:51:34","slug":"the-worlds-top-drivers-gather-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/news\/topics\/the-worlds-top-drivers-gather-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"The world’s top drivers gather in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORUM8 Rally Japan 2025 entry list announced<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The entry list for the FIA World Rally Championship FORUM8 Rally Japan 2025, to be held in Aichi and Gifu Prefectures from Thursday, November 6 to Sunday, November 9, 2025, has been announced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s event, the fourth held in Aichi and Gifu Prefectures, will see 38 vehicles from around the world gather to compete fiercely for the best time across special stages totaling over 300 kilometers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Category<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the top category, Rally1 cars, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WORLD RALLY TEAM will field a total of five GR Yaris Rally1 vehicles. Leading the entries are car #17, S\u00e9bastien Ogier (France) \/ Vincent Landais (France), who are currently first in the points standings after Round 11, Rally Chile, and car #33, Elfyn Evans (UK) \/ Scott Martin (UK), who are second. Also participating under manufacturer registration is car #69, Kalle Rovanper\u00e4 (Finland) \/ Jonne Halttunen (Finland), currently third in the standings. Additionally, the team will enter a total of five crews, including the only Japanese driver, car #18, Takamoto Katsuta (Japan) \/ Aaron Johnston (Ireland), and car #5, Sami Pajari (Finland) \/ Marko Salminen (Finland), who became a Rally1 regular driver this year, all aiming to shine in their home country of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM will field three i20 N Rally1 cars. Leading the entries is car #1, Thierry Neuville (Belgium) \/ Martijn Wydaeghe (Belgium), winner of the 2022 Rally Japan and last year\u2019s World Champion in the drivers\u2019 category. Also entered are car #8, Ott T\u00e4nak (Estonia) \/ Martin J\u00e4rveoja (Estonia), and car #16, Adrien Fourmaux (France) \/ Alexandre Coria (France). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM will field two Puma Rally1 cars. Entered are car #13, Gr\u00e9goire Munster (Luxembourg) \/ Louis Louka (Belgium), and car #55, Joshua McErlean (Ireland) \/ Eoin Tracey (Ireland). With these three teams, a total of 10 cars will compete in the WRC Round 13, the Japan event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rally2 \/ Rally3 \/ National Class<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Rally2, which has 15 entries, the field includes Oliver Solberg (Sweden) \/ Elliott Edmondson (UK), who have already secured the WRC2 World Championship after winning five events this season, including Round 11, Rally Chile. Also entered are WRC2 top-ranked drivers Jan Solans (Spain) \/ Rodrigo Sanju\u00e1n (Spain) in a GR Yaris, and Gus Greensmith (UK) \/ Jonas Andersson (Sweden) and Nikolay Gryazin (Bulgaria) \/ Konstantin Aleksandrov (Kyrgyzstan) in \u0160koda Fabia RS vehicles. Additionally, Yuki Yamamoto, a Toyota development program driver who finished 5th in the WRC2 class at this year\u2019s Rally Finland, will compete in his home round in a GR Yaris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several crews active in the All-Japan Rally Championship are also entered in WRC2. Hiroki Arai \/ Daiki\u00a0Tachikui, 2024 JN1 class champions driving a \u0160koda Fabia R5, finished 3rd in the WRC2 class at last year\u2019s Rally Japan, ahead of many international competitors. Other entries in a GR Yaris include Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) \/ Sae Kitagawa, Norihiko Katsuta \/ Takahiro Yasui, and Fumio\u00a0Nutahara\u00a0\/\u00a0Shungo\u00a0Azuma.\u00a0Takuma\u00a0Kamata\u00a0 \/\u00a0Yuichi Matsumoto and Osamu Fukunaga \/ Misako Saita will compete in \u0160koda Fabia RS cars, while Satoshi Imai \/ Fuyu Takahashi will race in a Citro\u00ebn C3.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Rally3 has 5 entries, RGT and RC5 classes each have 1 car, and the National class has 6 entries. In total, 38 cars and 76 crew members from 16 countries will race through the mountainous stages and super special stages of Aichi and Gifu Prefectures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2158,"parent":0,"template":"","cat_news":[2],"tag_news":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2200,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2155\/revisions\/2200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cat_news","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cat_news?post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"tag_news","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rally-japan.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tag_news?post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}