SS1 / SS5 Pawse Kamuy Reverse (9.03km)
A relatively short nine kilometre stage that’s quite similar to character to the stages in New Zealand, and really different to the rest we experience here. The road flows through farmland and is quite open – a wide stage compared to the rest in Japan. It’s fast between slow, long corners. The road surface is deep gravel, almost eight centimetres thick in places, but there is a very hard base so being further down the running order will help here. There are a few asphalt sections but they are only very short so make little difference.

SS2 / SS6 Cup Kamuy (13.95km)
This is a more typical stage of Rally Japan, run through the forest. It was quite slippy during the recce as there were damp patches that take a long time to dry, and it is fast and narrow. It’s tricky as there are fast corners that tighten, but most are fifth and sixth gear still. The last four kilometres are run on wider and more open roads, but the surface is very loose. The stage is mostly new for everybody.

SS3 / SS7 Kimun Kamuy (26.03km)
Similar in character to Cup Kamuy, this is the second forest stage of leg one. It is also slippy due to wet patches that take time to dry. It’s a much more twisty stage, but also the fastest of the first day. Equally narrow, there is a lot of grass on the inside of the corners that means you can cut a lot. It is always hard to judge how much, but it is common that you can get half of the car inside the road. It is probably the most challenging stage of the day.

SS4 / SS8 / SS11 / SS15 Rikubetsu (2.73km)
This is quite a slow stage with lots of long corners for spectators. It’s a short stage tht we basically treat as a super special. It starts with some tricky tight hairpin bends before a section in a rally cross circuit with a jump over the flying finish. It’s a great place to spectate and we saw a lot of crowds there last time.

SS9 / SS10 / SS19 / SS20 / SS27 Obihiro (1.35km)
The spectator super special looks really really slippery. It’s good fun to drive and great for spectators but it’s a bit too short. We drive the route for the shakedown run, but when it’s run during the rally it will be in the dark which will make it a bit different. It’s always good fun to be running alongside someone else on a stage.

SS12 / SS16 Puray (34.96km)
Leg two starts with another classic Rally Japan stage, very fast through the forests. I think it’s probably the fastest stage. The first corner is tricky, and as with most other stages it is narrow. The character is very similar to the stage of leg one, most comparable with SS3. It’s the longest stage of the rally, and it means that if you really push hard you can make quite a lot of time on other cars here.

SS13 / SS17 Niueo (20.75km)
Niueo features some long sections under a canopy of overhanging trees. The surface is loose with lots of gravel on top of a hard compacted base. There are more medium-slow corners in second gear, and some open, flowing hairpin corners. Again, it’s very narrow, but in some places it is really just a track, with grass growing in the middle of the route.

SS14 Sipirkakim (22.43km) / SS18 Sipirkakim Short (4.67km)
Quite similar to stage one, it’s another open road a bit like New Zealand. Still running through the forest, the gravel is very deep and loose but it is fast all the way through. There’s a steep downhill section before the finish, so it’s flat out over the line. There are a series of medium-long corners that tighten to slow, in second or third gear. There are a lot of concrete drains in the middle of the road that are very bumpy, so it is important to try and avoid them as best as we can. For the second pass we only use the last 4.67km.

SS21 / SS24 Rera Kamuy (8.76km)
This is what I call quite a square stage, meaning there are lots of straight sections followed by medium-100 corners, like driving around the edge of a square. It’s quite slow because of this. Like the rest of leg three it’s more open. The character of this stage is different to the rest we use because of this.

SS22 / SS25 Panke Nikorpet (17.04km)
This one’s very narrow and very fast. There’s little margin for error, with ditches and other hazards close to the roadside. The surface itself is very soft and muddy, probably the worst of the rally, so you can expect this one to cut up badly for the second pass. This and the next are probably the trickiest of the rally in terms of grip.
SS23 / SS26 Penke (22.19km)

The character of this stage is very similar to SS22 as there is only a very short road section between the two. It starts open and fast but gets progressively more twisty and technical. The final third is very twisty as the road snakes through the forests before the flying finish.