Esapekka Lappi shaded Kalle Rovanperä to the fastest time at Secto Rally Finland shakedown – but the top four cars were all split by just four-tenths of a second.
The Ruuhimäki shakedown test utilized sections of the famous stage that will be used competitively on Friday, giving drivers the ideal taster of what’s to come this weekend.
Rovanperä – who is still yet to win his home event – was fastest after the first run, but Lappi, the latest Finn to win Rally Finland back in 2017, got the better of the world champion after the second pass; setting the pace at 2m15.4s.
Both Finns are desperate to claim a victory on home ground.
“It’s the highlight of the season for sure,” Rovanperä said. “It’s not going to be an easy one and we are missing a good result from here, so that’s going to be the plan this weekend for sure.”
Takamoto Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier tied for third-fastest time, each a further tenth off Lappi’s pace – although Ogier’s first run was scrubbed as he failed to execute the virtual chicane correctly.
Virtual chicanes will be used for the first time competitively in the World Rally Championship later this weekend on Saturday’s Ouninpohja stage.
“It’s been a while [since I’ve been in Finland] but I’m very excited, a lot of nice stages,” Ogier said. “Ouninpohja is back in a full version more or less, very beautiful stages so it should be good fun.”
Like Ogier, Elfyn Evans was also handed a five-minute time for his first run of shakedown but recovered to go sixth fastest – crucially ahead of his title rivals Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak which he will be hoping is a pre-cursor for the weekend ahead.
Rainy conditions look set for the rally though, which will play into Neuville’s hands as his job of road sweeping will be less severe. The Belgian was seventh quickest on shakedown, 0.3s shy of team-mate Tänak and 0.7s adrift of Evans.
“You can drive here as much as you want, it never gets easier,” said three-time Finland winner Tänak.
“Here you have no margin and it’s technical and fast at the same time. Here the ultimate precision is needed.”
M-Sport pilot Adrien Fourmaux was faster than all of the title contenders with the fifth-best time, although he was another to lose a time through a virtual chicane infringement.
On his first weekend in a Rally1 car, Sami Pajari was ninth-fastest and loving every second of steering a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
“It’s just really, really amazing and… yeah I still need to work to make the driving more clean and to have a better flow but still we are enjoying a lot,” he said.
“It’s just the best thing you can do. The competition is so high, so the comparison is a bit silly to do, but still we are enjoying and the improvement should come.”
Grégoire Munster rounded out the Rally1 times for M-Sport.
Oliver Solberg set the shakedown pace in WRC2 with his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Toyota team principal and three-time Rally Finland winner Jari-Matti Latvala was fourth in a GR Yaris Rally2.
