Banbury’s Subaru World Rally Team driver Chris Atkinson and Stéphane Prévot finished in fourth position overall on the first day of the Rally Japan.

Teammates Petter Solberg and Phil Mills also climbed the leaderboard to secure fifth position at the end of the first day, which saw three stages cancelled and one stopped prematurely.

The two crews are separated by just 1.7 seconds.

After a morning in which stage three was cancelled due to the affects of adverse weather and the leaderboard remained largely unchanged, the afternoon was a completely different story The stages were expected to be much more rutted and challenging on their second passes, but no one could have predicted the early exit of two of the front-runners and the stopping of another three stages.

Stage three, repeated as stage seven, was covered in thick snow on the recce earlier in the week, and after this the surface was deemed too deteriorated to be used in competition.

Then Citroen’s Dani Sordo and Ford’s Francois Duval fell out of contention on stage six. That stage was stopped when Duval’s co-driver Patrick Pivato was hospitalised when the duo slid off the road, but his condition is reported as stable.

With the ensuing delays, stage eight was the third to be cancelled so as to allow the field to regroup in the service park and start the two spectator stages inside the Sapporo Dome on time.

“Rally Japan has traditionally been a rally of attrition, and we’ve seen today that this remains true despite the change of location,” said David Richards, Subaru World Rally Team Principal.

“We’ve also seen some very tricky conditions today, despite which Petter and Chris have kept their heads to finish in solid positions from which we are well placed to make the most of the remaining two days.”

“The car was not right this morning so we lost a lot, but it was much better this afternoon and we were able to make up time” said Chris Atkinson. “I had a lot of understeer this morning and after service it was less. It was enjoyable to drive.”

“The stages this afternoon were very rutted and slippery, but we had no major problems today other than a small off in the first stage, but no damage” said Petter Solberg. “Today’s stages were very narrow and slippery and we knew that it would be difficult. The stages tomorrow will be much faster though and I think they will suit us much better so hopefully tomorrow we can increase our speed. I want to fight for a podium. The approach doesn’t change. It’s always the same focus on fighting for a win coming into every rally.”