Ypres Rally favorite Thierry Neuville headed the times on the pre-event shakedown stage, edging his Hyundai team-mate Ott Tänak by 0.8 seconds.
Neuville is the only top-line driver to have contested the Ypres Rally behind the wheel of a World Rally Car, while Hyundai’s third driver Craig Breen is the only other pilot to have any experience of the event at all.
At six miles, the Langemark shakedown test is meaty in WRC terms, but the leading times were predictably close.
Despite his experience advantage on the first ever WRC event to be held in his native Belgium, Neuville was run close by Tänak who was some 2.3s clear of the pack after the second runs.
But on the mandatory third pass, Neuville knocked 4.9s off his previous best effort to restore himself at the top of the timesheets, having gone quickest on the initial pass of the stage.
“I’m feeling good, it’s good to be in Belgium,” Neuville said on Wednesday. “Looking forward to what’s coming next.
“It’s going to be a real challenge out there of course as usual, but I think it’s an interesting event ahead of us.”
World championship leader Sébastien Ogier was the quickest of the Toyotas and third fastest overall, 2.1s down on Neuville but 1.1s up on team-mate and closest title rival Elfyn Evans.
Ogier is targeting a rostrum this weekend but, as always, his primary objective is to outscore his nearest title contenders. After Evans, 37 points behind, Neuville is third with a 52-point deficit.
The WRC’s latest winner Kalle Rovanperä completed a 3-4-5 formation for Toyota on shakedown, stopping the clocks exactly four seconds slower than Neuville. Following his first-stage retirement in Croatia, Rovanperä has admitted he still has lots to learn about Pirelli’s asphalt tire this weekend.
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
2C Comeptition’s Pierre-Louis Loubet was an impressive sixth fastest in his Hyundai, 0.2s ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux who, in turn, was 0.3s quicker than Takamoto Katsuta.
Katsuta is competing with new co-driver Keaton Williams this week, as Dan Barritt continues to rest at home following the minor injury he picked up over a jump on Rally Estonia four weeks ago.
Gus Greensmith was ninth fastest, another 0.3s adrift of Katsuta, while Jarri Huttunen headed the Rally2 times in 10th with the debuting Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car. His third run put him 0.9s up on M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen.
Oliver Solberg got the second Hyundai within 0.5s of Suninen’s Fiesta Rally2 initially, and then with a late fourth run was able to match him.
Nikolay Gryazin was 0.3 slower in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, and M-Sport’s Tom Kristensson was a further 2.1s back for M-Sport.
Despite expecting to challenge at the front this weekend, Breen’s best time was over 20s adrift of the pace. Two subsequent runs were around 30s and then 45s slower than his initial pass.
He said that he “had a really good feeling with the car but had some issues on each run of the stage, so the time did not reflect this” and DirtFish later learned he had suffered a puncture on the stage.
Crews in WRC3 and Junior WRC had their attempts at shakedown on Thursday evening. There were a couple of casualties as Hyundai junior Josh McErlean ditched his Hyundai i20 R5 and JWRC contender Mārtiņš Sesks got crossed up and was lucky not to roll his Ford Fiesta Rally4.
Competitive stage action begins just a few hours after shakedown with eight stages on Friday, beginning at 12.26pm local time.
Leading shakedown times
1 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) 4m22.5s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) +0.8s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +2.1s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +3.2s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +4.0s
6 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Florian Haut-Labourdett (Hyundai) +6.1s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Renaud Jamoul (M-Sport Ford) +6.3s
8 Takamoto Katsuta/Keaton Williams (Toyota) +6.6s
9 Gus Greensmith/Chris Patterson (M-Sport Ford) +6.9s
10 Jari Huttunen/Mikko Lukka (Hyundai) +10.6s
