Ogier cuts Evans' WRC lead before Saudi finale

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Elfyn Evans will take a World Rally Championship (WRC) lead of just three points into the final round of the season after rival Sebastien Ogier won Rally Japan.

Welsh driver Evans, 36, finished 11.6 seconds behind his Toyota team-mate, collecting 25 points from the penultimate event, while eight-time world champion Ogier took the maximum 35.

The 41-year-old Frenchman dominated throughout, including topping the Super Sunday standings on a final day hit by torrential rain.

"I was going to say it's fun but that's a bit of a lie about today," said Evans who is bidding for his maiden world title.

"Overall it's been a fun weekend to try and fight with Seb."

A third Toyota driver, Kalle Rovanpera, now only has an outside chance of winning his third WRC title - trailing by 24 points after placing sixth in Japan.

The final event on the 14-race calendar is the newly established Rally Saudi Arabia from 25-29 November.

Evans held a 13-point lead over both Ogier and Rovanpera going into the Toyota City-based event.

However, the Finn's hopes took an early blow, dropping more than five minutes on Friday after damaging his rear suspension in a collision with a barrier.

Evans began slowly, placing sixth on the opening stage, but put together back-to-back stage wins on Friday and a strong Saturday morning sequence to rise up to second just 1.4secs behind leader Ogier.

The Frenchman responded with a dominant performance on Saturday afternoon, which continued as he was also the quickest driver across the final day's six stages - including adding a further additional five points with victory in the final bonus power stage.

"It's obviously a perfect result," said Ogier, who is looking to equal Sebastien Loeb's record nine world titles.

"It's been a challenging weekend because after the rain today nothing was certain, it was the start of a new rally this morning.

"Now, let's go to the next one. This was a perfect weekend for us to come back so close [to Evans] and let's hope the last one is not a lottery."

Toyota Gazoo Racing have already secured their fifth consecutive WRC manufacturers' title and are now guaranteed to take the top three places in the drivers' championship.

Rovanpera, though, looks destined to finish third in his final rally season before switching to a career in circuit racing.

"Definitely not the weekend we wanted to have but sometimes it's like this," said the 25-year-old Finn.

"Just a bit too inconsistent with results this year."

1. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, 3 hours 21 minutes 8.9 seconds

2. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, +11.6secs

3. Sami Pajari (Finland), Toyota, +2min 16.6secs

4. Ott Tanak (Estonia), Hyundai, +3min 18.1secs

5. Gregoire Munster (Luxembourg), Ford, +6min 48.7secs

6. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, +7min 01.5secs

1. Elfyn Evans (Great Britain), Toyota, 272 points

2. Sebastien Ogier (France), Toyota, 269

3. Kalle Rovanpera (Finland), Toyota, 248