Ogier wins Rally Japan to take world title fight to final race

Sebastien Ogier took the World Rally Championship battle to the final event of the season after winning Rally Japan on Sunday and slashing Elfyn Evans' lead in the standings to three points.

Ogier kept his hopes of a record-equalling ninth world title alive to set up a showdown with Welshman Evans at the season-ending Rally Saudi Arabia later this month.

Finland's Kalle Rovanpera is 24 points behind Evans after finishing sixth, still with a mathematical chance of winning a third world championship.

Evans had the chance to clinch his first world championship in Japan but his Toyota teammate Ogier refused to throw in the towel with a typically tenacious performance.

The 41-year-old finished 11.6sec ahead of runner-up Evans on a final day lashed by rain on the twisting, leaf-strewn asphalt roads.

Ogier said it was the "perfect result" after hitting a tree at last month's Central European Rally.

"It's been a challenging weekend because of this rain today, nothing was certain, it was the start of a new rally this morning," said Ogier, who climbed on top of his car to celebrate after crossing the finish line.

Ogier began the final day 6.5sec ahead of Evans but steady rain brought radically different conditions after three days of sunshine.

The Frenchman was equal to the task, winning three stages and taking the maximum five Sunday points.

Evans snapped at his rival's heels throughout the day and remains in pole position to clinch the title in Saudi Arabia.

The Welshman, who has finished as championship runner-up four times, said Ogier was "always tough" to compete against.

"I feel like the performance has been quite good here, it's been quite close between the two of us," said Evans.

"He just made the small difference and that's what it takes to win at this level."

Finland's Sami Pajari took his first podium with third place, 2min 16.6sec behind Ogier.

Rovanpera fell out of contention early on the second day following a shunt and finished 7:01.5 behind Ogier.

"Definitely not the weekend that we wanted to have but sometimes it's like this," said Rovanpera.

"We have one more weekend to go so we'll try again in Saudi."

Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville retired before the opening stage of the day with a windscreen wiper issue.

France's Adrien Fourmaux was also forced to quit when a collision with a tree ripped the door off his Hyundai on co-driver Alexandre Coria's side.