Reigning world champion Petter Solberg took a commanding win as Rally Japan made its debut on the World Rally Championship calendar. As a result, the Norwegian has moved within 30 points of title leader Sebastien Loeb with five rallies to go.
Solberg led from the very first stage and at no point did he relinquish his advantage, building a substantial gap of over a minute by the end of Saturday's second leg thanks to 11 stage wins. From then on he was able to receive split times from his team and measure his drive appropriately to ensure an easy victory.
Loeb was consistently fast on the Japanese gravel but decided to defend his points lead rather than pushing for the event win once he realised that Solberg was in imperious form. The Frenchman was able to build a big enough lead over third-placed Markko Martin to guarantee second spot, however.
Martin struggled with poor pace notes and suspension trouble on the first and second legs, but recovered to overcome Gronholm in the battle for the final podium place. He took three stage wins on the final day after Ford team-mate Francois Duval retired following a collision with a bridge on a rally that had a surprisingly low rate of attrition.
Having started off in strong contention for overall victory, Peugeot’s Marcus Gronholm will have been disappointed to have ended up fourth thanks to gearbox trouble and a time penalty that set him back. The Finn had to contest SS13 stuck in third gear, and, although he took a number of stage wins, was never able to seriously challenge after that.
Gronholm’s team-mate Harri Rovanpera also suffered gearbox trouble and finished way off the pace in sixth, behind Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard picked up valuable points for Citroen as the Xsara again showed great reliability, and he impressed in flashes over the three legs.
Seventh place went to Subaru’s Mikko Hirvonen after he experienced a number of problems in his team’s home event. Last of the driver’s points went to Antony Warmbold in his Ford Focus RS WRC 02, as he edged out Japanese driver Toshihiro Arai by just 0.7s following a thrilling tussle.
