Rallying-Evans leads Ogier in Japan after Solberg crashes out

May 30 - World championship leader Elfyn Evans will go into Sunday's final leg of Rally Japan 17.8 seconds clear of Toyota teammate Sebastien Ogier after Swedish challenger Oliver Solberg crashed out on Saturday.

Toyota still filled the top four places in their home asphalt event after the longest leg, with Sami Pajari running in third place and local hero Takamoto Katsuta fourth.

Welshman Evans had started the day with a lead of 15.7 seconds over Solberg, who then closed the gap over the morning session before he hit a tree on stage 10.

"I felt really good in the car, very comfortable. I wasn't really pushing anything crazy, just trying to do what I did all weekend," explained Solberg after sliding wide at a left-handed turn on slippery and muddy asphalt.

"(I) just braked a little bit too late and hit that (tree) and broke the rear suspension.”

Ogier moved up into second place and ended the day 26.6 seconds ahead of Pajari.

"Not what we were hoping. We came here to fight for the win and we're not fighting," said the Frenchman, last year's winner and nine-times world champion.

"We had a similar rally to Elfyn, except for that one stage (on Friday). It was tough and after that I never had the pace to fight back, struggling with the tyre basically."

Solberg won two of the day's first three stages -- seven and nine -- with Evans taking eight and 12. Ogier won stage 10 while Pajari was fastest on 11, 13 and the day's final 14th Fujioka super-special stage .

"I'm very pleased with the afternoon loop in general. I was hoping to find more pace and that's exactly what we did," said the Finn.

The fastest non-Toyota driver was Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux in fifth place, with teammate Thierry Neuville sixth and New Zealander Hayden Paddon seventh.

Sunday features six more stages. REUTERS