The Latest Breaking News from Toyota

The Toyota driver could afford to take a measured approach given his sizeable advantage, but ended the morning loop, held in dry conditions, winning two of the four stages, to lead by 1m35.5s. Nearest rival Ogier was able to claw 14.4s back on Evans across the morning.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville was the first to come across the stranded zero car which was pulled over to one side of the road midway through the 20.32km Nukata Forest test.

Evans puts his Toyota GR Yaris into a 26.0s lead over Neuville after winning the morning’s two stages held in extreme wet conditions, but the Welshman came under pressure from Neuville in the afternoon.

Neuville had closed to within 10.5s of Evans heading into stage six but his rally came to a premature halt 100 metres into the stage.

Neuville had closed to within 10.5s of Evans heading into stage six but his rally came to a premature halt 100 metres into the stage.

The Toyota driver emerged as the class of the field in arguably the most challenging and dangerous conditions the crews have experienced this season.

The Hyundai driver appeared to lock up under braking on the incredibly slippery wet asphalt, littered with leaves and pine needles, and went off the road, 11.8km into the Isegami’s Tunnel stage (24.67km). Sordo’s i20N darted to left before swiping some trees as the car slid down an embankment.

An all-new Subaru Forester, a Lucid electric SUV, and a revamped Toyota Camry are among the new automobiles that will be on display at the Los Angeles Auto Show starting this week

Drivers have noted an excessive amount of leaves and pine needles covering the asphalt stages following the recce earlier this week.