Thierry Neuville set the pace on Rally Sweden’s Umeå City shakedown stage ahead of Hyundai team-mate Adrien Fourmaux.
Elfyn Evans was the quickest of the Toyotas, which all did no more than three runs as opposed to the Hyundai drivers who took five.
Unusually, the Rally1 cars entered shakedown after the Rally2 and Rally3 runners, meaning crews were immediately faced with second-pass conditions and unsuitable lines.
That caught out a few, with Lappi the highest-profile casualty as he struggled for grip under braking and nudged into the snow.
“I hope it will not be going like that all the time!” Lappi remarked. “There is no grip on the braking at all with loose snow, but it doesn’t matter. We go again.”
Lappi’s best time was nine tenths off the pace of Hyundai team-mate Neuville and equalled reigning Rally Sweden winner Evans’ effort.
Neuville posted the benchmark time of 1m51.8s on his fifth and final run, 0.3s quicker than Fourmaux’s effort.
“It’s not the perfect shakedown to be honest, but to get a bit of a feeling would be good enough,” said Neuville after the first pass. “It’s a few weeks since I’ve been driving, it’s a long time so I’m happy to be back in the car.”
Katsuta completed the top-five on shakedown, and has no intention of repeating his runner-up from 2025; he wants to win.
“Of course that’s the target this week. I try my best,” he said. “The stage was not like normal first pass conditions on shakedown but the car was working very well, so let’s say I’m quite confident now.”
Evans was the fastest of the Toyotas, going equal third quickest on shakedown
Josh McErlean was the quickest of the M-Sport drivers, posting the sixth-best time ahead of world championship leader and home hero Oliver Solberg.
Sami Pajari was eighth ahead of Jon Armstrong and Mãrtiņš Sesks who stalled at the start-line on his first pass.
“It’s the first time in a Rally1 car I’ve stalled – imagine three years without a stall! Always a first time I guess,” he said.
Finnish teenager Tuukka Kauppinen was fastest of the WRC2 runners ahead of Sweden’s Isak Reiersen and Finland’s Roope Korhonen.
