Thierry Neuville will head into Thursday afternoon’s opening stage of Monza Rally with the confidence of knowing he was fastest on the pre-event shakedown stage, with points leader Elfyn Evans only ninth fastest.
The 2.88-mile Hyundai Monza Circuit test is just a pre-cursor to what is to come over the next four days, but it was an opportunity for the World Rally Championship’s stars to get to grips with the unique format of the season finale.
Cold, snowy and slippery conditions were the major talking point and Evans quickly found out just how treacherous and deceptive the roads are going to be this week. Approaching one of the many chicanes set-up on the circuit, Evans flicked his Toyota Yaris WRC left but when he flicked it back right to negotiate the barriers, the back end stepped out and he clouted the haybale and blocks that formed the chicane to the right of his car.
He and co-driver Scott Martin were able to press on, but some smoke began to gather in the car, potentially as a result of bodywork rubbing on the exhaust.
Fellow Briton Gus Greensmith, who would set the sixth fastest time in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC, started the first pass of shakedown several cars behind Evans but could see how the Toyota driver made the error.
“I thought being on the track it was going to be one of the most simple weekends but there’s no grip whatsoever,” he said. “[I] got to the chicane Elfyn was spinning [and] it looked completely fine. You got to the right and the grip wasn’t there.”
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Neuville’s timesheet-topping run was set on his first pass, where he went 3.5 seconds faster than Evans’ chief points rival and team-mate Sébastien Ogier. Neuville himself can still win his maiden WRC title this weekend, but is 24 points adrift with only 30 still available.
“It’s going to be an interesting weekend,” Neuville admitted. “Slippy conditions even on shakedown so it’s going to be even more slippy for the race.”
Ogier was relegated to third fastest though after everybody had completed their third runs; Ott Tänak sneaking past into second spot to form a Hyundai one-two. The reigning World Champion completed the test 2.1s slower than his team-mate, with Ogier another 0.7s adrift.
“I think you see the weather we have already is a big challenge,” said Ogier. “The surface sounds a bit easier than normal but actually it’s not because all this muddy section inbetween is going to make it tricky.”
Kalle Rovanperä was fourth fastest in his Toyota and was 0.4s quicker than Toyota’s junior driver Takamoto Katsuta, who suffered a half-spin and then a stall on his first attempt at the shakedown stage.
Katsuta has raced at Monza before when he was a single-seater racing driver, but he was adamant that was no advantage for him this week. “I expect that but no,” he said when asked. “It’s not like track, so much gravel section and not what I was used to in my previous career!”
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In sixth, Greensmith was the quickest of the M-Sport cars but just 0.2s shy of Katsuta and 0.1s ahead of Ole Christian Veiby in the 2C Competition Hyundai. Shakedown presented Veiby’s first chance to get to grips with the i20 Coupe WRC in a semi-competitive environment and he impressed with seventh fastest.
“[With] the fog and everything I didn’t want to do a stupid mistake on the braking so I was really, really, really careful on the braking,” the WRC2 regular said. “I need to get some feeling with the car and I don’t have any of my body for this kind of track yet so I need to learn.”
Rally Italy victor Dani Sordo was eighth in the fourth Hyundai, 6.3s down on test winner Neuville but 0.2s ahead of Evans who managed his best time on his second attempt. M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen was 10th fastest, 0.3s quicker than team-mate Esapekka Lappi.
The Rally2 competitors have a rare opportunity to keep relative pace with the Rally1 drivers this weekend, at least on the circuit stages, such is the nature of the rally.
Umberto Scandola was the quickest of those, 2.7s down on Lappi and 0.1s up on WRC3 title contender Kajetan Kajetanowicz. Mads Østberg was fastest in WRC2, 0.3s up on his title rival Pontus Tidemand.
Shakedown times
1 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai) 3m08.7s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +2.1s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +2.8s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +3.7s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +4.1s
6 Gus Greensmith/Elliott Edmondson (M-Sport) +4.3s
7 Ole Christian Veiby/Jonas Andersson (2C Hyundai) +4.4s
8 Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai) +6.3s
9 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +6.5s
10 Teemu Suninen/Jarmo Lehtinen (M-Sport) +6.7s
