Rally Japan - 3rd Day - 1st Loop: Evans still out in front, Lappi up to 4th

At the end of Saturday morning, Elfyn Evans is still leading Rally Japan with Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera following him.

Elfyn Evans remains on the top of the overall classification and was the fastest driver in Stages 11 and 12 which were the superspecial stages of Saturday morning.

Sebastien Ogier increased further his gap from the third Kalle Rovanpera as the last one was still struggling with the road conditions. Despite the fact that Rovanpera was much closer to his teammate after Ogier's one-minute time penalty at the end of Friday, their gap is now at 35,2 seconds.

Esapekka Lappi gained totally three places and is now fourth overall. He started SS10 from sixth position and was just 0,5 seconds behind Gregoire Munster while the fourth Andreas Mikkelsen kept the Finn behind for one second after SS11. Finally, EP overtook Mikkelsen on the second pass from the superspecial stage "Okazaki City" and sits comfortably in fourth place.

Andreas Mikkelsen, Gregoire Munster and Nikolay Gryazin separate Lappi from the eighth Ott Tanak on the classification.

Takamoto Katsuta remains ninth overall despite his efforts to climb further on the standings. The Japanese start was the fastest driver in Stage 10.

Stage 9 was red flagged and the stewards gave to four Rally1 drivers (Neuville, Lappi, Tanak and Katsuta) notional times.

Thierry Neuville restarted today under the regulations of Super Rally following his retirement in Stage 6 a day ago and was the fastest driver in SS9.

Dani Sordo and Adrien Fourmaux were forced to retire for the rest of the weekend as their cars were heavily damaged after their exits in Stage 2.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after the end of SS12:

Photo Credits: Toyota