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Rally Japan 2023 counts for:
2023 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers/Co-drivers
2023 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
2023 FIA World Rally Championship 2 (for Teams and Drivers/Co-drivers)
2023 FIA World Rally Championship 3 (for Drivers/Co-drivers)
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| 641st WRC rally |
| Round of season: | 13 of 13 |
| Official name: | Forum8 Rally Japan |
| Edition: | 8th |
| Date: | from Thursday 16-Nov-2023 to Sunday 19-Nov-2023 |
| Rally HQ: | Toyota City, Chubu Region; Japan |
| Clerk of the Course: | Haruo Takakuwa |
| Surface: | Tarmac |
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| Entries: | 36 | |
| Starters: | 35 | |
| Finishers: | 28 | (80.0% of starters) |
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| Stages: | 22 | |
| Shortest: | 2.10 | km | (SS1 Toyota Stadium SSS 1) |
| Longest: | 23.67 | km | (SS5 Isegami Tunnel 2) |
| Slowest: | 63.00 | km/h | (SS8 Toyota Stadium SSS 2) |
| Fastest: | 120.78 | km/h | (SS15 Shinshiro City) |
| Planned stage distance: | 304.12 | km | (32.5% of total distance) |
| Actual stage distance: | 281.59 | km | (30.1% of total distance) |
| Road section distance: | 654.83 | km |
| Total distance: | 936.42 | km |
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| DRIVERS - PODIUM FINISHERS |
| | Win was 8th win and 30th podium for Elfyn Evans. |
| Second place was 98th podium for Sebastien Ogier. |
| Third place was 21st podium for Kalle Rovanpera. |
| MAKES - PODIUM FINISHERS |
| | Win was 85th win and triple win were 241st to 243rd podiums for Toyota. |
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Toyota more than made up for their measly last year's result. Evans led team home in a handsome 1-2-3 victory under challenging conditions that potentially reminded him of conditions in his native Great Britain. He never put foot wrong and eventually finished over minute ahead of his team mates.
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Hyundai had good recent record on tarmac and started as favourites. But as rain and soaked leaves made roads very slippery, Sordo went off on SS2 and retired while Neuville also went off on SS6 but managed to continue next day although with considerable time loss. Lappi (pictured) started very cautiously, even trailing several Rally2 cars but this paid in the end as he eventually finished fourth.
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Tanak's final rally with M-Sport Ford was filled with trouble - misting windscreen, electric problems, no anti-lag and throttle worries. He also had luck when he overshot but went into escape road, losing only little time. Team-mate Fourmaux went off and retired on same corner as Sordo, retiring side by side with the spaniard.
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Related links
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Central E. Rally 2023
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Monte Carlo 2024
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