Elfyn Evans set the pace on Rally Chile shakedown, 0.5 seconds up on his World Rally Championship rival Kalle Rovanperä.
Rovanperä has his first chance of securing a second successive WRC title this weekend but would need to outscore Evans by 27 points to do so.
Realistically that will be a very tall order – not least because it requires Evans to collect very few points, but also because Rovanperä will be first on the road which is expected to be a particular problem on Friday with stages littered with loose stones.
“The stages look nice, definitely a lot of cleaning for us,” the world champion admitted. “But that’s quite normal so all good.”
His Toyota team-mate Evans, who will start one car behind Rovanperä in Friday’s running order, was never bettered on the 3.57-mile Bio Bio shakedown stage, which was longer than most on the WRC calendar.
“[There’s] quite a difference in conditions,” Evans said, “especially Friday to Saturday so obviously not easy to make the call on setup, etc. Let’s see.”
M-Sport Ford’s Pierre-Louis Loubet impressed to be best of the rest in his Puma Rally1, stopping the clocks 1.1s slower than Evans.
After an extremely disappointing Acropolis Rally Greece where he didn’t even manage to start a gravel stage, Loubet has his eyes on a finish in Chile.
“The stages are very enjoyable I would say so I hope we will enjoy this rally,” he said.
Teemu Suninen was quickest of the Hyundai drivers in fourth, 0.2s adrift of Loubet’s best effort, while Takamoto Katsuta ensured there were three Toyotas in the top five with the fifth fastest time.
Thierry Neuville wound up sixth fastest, just 0.1s shy of Katsuta but 1.6s down on Evans on an event he crashed out of when it last ran four years ago.
“We can expect a very challenging rally,” Neuville predicted. “The stages are really nice but very challenging for the drivers and the cars as well.”
Ott Tänak is the only driver to have ever won Rally Chile, but that was back in his Toyota days. Driving for M-Sport, he was seventh fastest on shakedown – exactly two seconds off the ultimate pace.
The Estonian had however been third fastest after the first pass.
“Great roads,” Tänak said, “I guess one of the best you can find in the championship. Most of them are new as well this year so they seem to have a good choice of them.
“I will try for sure, let’s see.”
Esapekka Lappi wants to secure his first podium since Estonia in Chile but was a subdued eighth in his i20 N Rally1 – 1.8s down on Tänak and 3.8s shy of the fastest time.
Rally1 debutant Grégoire Munster was impressively just 1.2s down on Lappi after attempting the shakedown stage four times, but there were huge smiles shared between him and co-driver Louis Louka after they crossed the flying finish of the first pass.
“It’s just incredible,” Munster said. “The corners arrive so fast, the braking in the pacenotes is a bit too much [like] Rally2 so we are going too early. But being here, we enjoy so much after 5km. We have 300km ahead, really happy.”
There were even bigger smiles aboard the sister Puma of local driver Alberto Heller though, who took the opportunity to drive the shakedown stage six times.
Initially slower than the leading Rally2 cars, Heller improved his time to a 4m07.6s – three seconds off Munster’s quickest run.
“It’s the best feeling in the world!” Heller said. “Amazing. This amazing car, at my home, I’m the most happy man in the world I think.”
Gus Greensmith set the shakedown pace in the WRC2 class, 0.3s up on Hyundai driver Emil Lindholm.
Greensmith’s fellow Toksport Škoda driver Oliver Solberg was third, a further 0.5s adrift, and Yohan Rossel was fourth in his Citroën.
Both Greensmith and Rossel are in need of a win in Chile with WRC2 points leader Andreas Mikkelsen absent this weekend.
