Ketomaa in charge in S-WRC fight

Jari Ketomaa will start day two of Rally Japan with a lead of 55.3s in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship section of the gravel event. Martin Prokop, in another Ford Fiesta, is second with Bernardo Sousa making it a Fiesta top three.

With Czech driver Roman Pesek not making the trip to Japan as planned to drive his RUFA Sport-entered Toyota Auris, the S-WRC has attracted just three entrants for round eight of the 10-event series.

Although the stage was set for a thrilling battle following Thursday’s two runs through the Sapporo Dome superspecial, which were won by Ketomaa and Sousa respectively, Ketomaa was left in the clear after completing Friday’s first stage 30.5s faster than Prokop, with Sousa a further 9.1s slower than the Czech driver.

Prokop, who can move into the title lead with victory in Japan, suffered a tough start to the event when he encountered a tree trunk lying in the road - the legacy of Ford Focus World Rally Car driver Khalid Al Qassimi’s accident - a little more than one kilometre into the 26.92-kilometre Iwanke Long stage.

Unable to take avoiding action, Prokop ran over the trunk, which then struck Al Qassimi’s stranded car, thankfully without injury to any crew. Prokop’s car was largely undamaged but the impact caused his onboard intercom system to fail, which made hearing co-driver Jan Tomanek’s pacenotes virtually impossible.

“It was very difficult to find the rhythm again after that because I lost a lot of confidence,” said Prokop, who is competing in Japan for the first time. “I am not happy with my situation but this rally is very difficult so I am just aiming for the podium and for some experience. We found some damage to the right-front corner of the car after the problem on the first stage today but other than that everything has been okay and the set-up was perfect this afternoon.”

There were no such worries for Ketomaa, the S-WRC winner in New Zealand and Portugal earlier this season. Although he reported oversteer following the morning loop of stages, the Finn enjoyed a trouble-free afternoon.

“We’ve just managed the car in the afternoon,” said Ketomaa, who was fastest on five of Friday’s six gravel stages. “The level of grip and the condition of the road were not so easy but otherwise the car has been better in the afternoon. Now I just need to keep my position and not make any mistakes. The road has been very rough but we are confident tomorrow with such a big lead.”

Sousa reported not being entirely satisfied with his pace on his first gravel rally for almost two months, adding: “I’m a little bit off the pace and not having a test did not help. Third place is guaranteed and Martin and Jari are really pushing like hell and there is no point me taking that kind of risk. I can see tomorrow’s second loop being very dramatic because the road will be very rough.”