Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja are 20.9 seconds ahead of Elfyn Evans (Wales), driving for Toyota before a home crowd for the team.

The 2024 season finishes this weekend with the Japanese rally and, far from being a formality, everything is on the table.

Hyundai will come away with the drivers' title one way or another – either with table-topper Thierry Neuville, keen for his maiden championship title after several years competing, often finishing runner-up – or with the Estonian, who won his first and so far only WRC title in 2019.

At the same time, South Korean team Hyundai has never won the WRC manufacturers' championship and is looking to put one over on Toyota this weekend too.

Team principal Cyril Abiteboul stated last week that no instructions would be given to the drivers, in respect of this matrix of drivers-team table outcomes.

The race is made up of 21 stages, covering 302.59 kilometers, nine of which are already over – with the time difference, the stages start in the small hours in Estonia, finishing about noon.

Toyota had a poor start to the event, with local hero Takamoto Katsuta and veteran eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier (France) both suffering tire blowouts, which cost them valuable time.

However, all eyes are on the top competitors – in the table Tänak and Neuville as noted, with Evans in the mix too in the race so far.

While the latter has no mathematical chance of winning the championship this year for Toyota, he does have a bearing on Tänak's final standing. For the latter, it is a "three-placer" – take all the points (30 in total) or at least more than 25, and he will be the 2024 world champion. However, if he comes away with nothing and Evans finishes with 16 or more points, the latter leapfrogs him for the runner-up place this year.

Ott Tänak & Martin Järveoja are the overnight leaders after a phenomenal Friday #WRC | #RallyJapan pic.twitter.com/kMufsvEkGu

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) November 22, 2024

As for Neuville, his Hyundai i20 encountered technical issues during stage four, and he, too, lost time both then and during a tire stage.

The Belgian conceded that a solution to the issue had not been found even after stage five.

During that stage, Andreas Mikkelsen (Norway), Hyundai's third driver this weekend, was involved in an accident that blocked the road. He has since retired.

Tänak and Evans continued their duel, but by the end of the day, the Estonian had secured a 20.9-second lead over the Toyota driver in the overall standings at the end of Friday, as noted.

Of the remainder, Adrien Formaux (France) is the first M-Sport Ford placer, in third (+1:53.9), just a tenth of a second ahead of Katsuta, who, along with his team, will be looking to improve after the poor Friday.

Ogier is 21.6 seconds behind Katsuta.

There is a long way to go yet, however.

Those wanting to follow the race in real-time, which they can do by following ERR Sport's live blog in Estonian, will have to be up early or not go to bed in the first place, as the stages start at 1:05 a.m. Estonian time on Saturday, ending again at around midday.

The final Sunday stages start similarly early, and the last stage begins at 7.15 a.m. Estonian time.

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