Ott Tänak has made a blistering start to Rally Italy to carve open an early 1.6-second lead over Kalle Rovanperä as M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen crashed towards the end of the opening stage.
Suninen, returning to the World Rally Car after two events in WRC2 with a Rally2 Fiesta, was setting some top-five pace through the stage but it all went wrong just a few miles before the end.
Running wide on a right-hander, Suninen lost the rear and the car drifted down a small bank and rolled onto its side. He and co-driver Mikko Markkula managed to right the car but struggled to free it from the shrubbery; the starter motor eventually seemingly burning out as the Fiesta wouldn’t fire up.
It’s the second time this season that Suninen has made an error on an SS1, following his dramatic exit from the Monte Carlo Rally back in January.
Out front, Tänak put the frustrations of his strange Rally Portugal retirement behind him and lit up the splits on Filigosu – Sa Conchedda, although as fourth car on the road he was a little worried about lingering dust.
Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
The World Rally Cars all started at three-minute intervals on SS1, but Tänak lobbied for longer gaps for the next test in his stage-end interview.
“Already this one very open and a lot of dust, so hey race control please be smart,” said the rally leader. “The next one is in the forest and it can be very dangerous so I’d say it makes sense to be clever this time.”
Rovanperä is another driver in need of a confidence boost after an off-color performance two weeks ago and was the only man who could get close to Tänak.
Sébastien Ogier, who is an early third despite opening the road, was eight seconds slower than his team-mate and 9.6s shy of the lead despite feeling he was “going to lose a lot of time”.
Dani Sordo – chasing a Rally Italy hat-trick – emerged fourth, 0.8s slower than Ogier and with 1.7s in hand over Toyota junior Takamoto Katsuta.
Sordo conceded “maybe I was a little careful” on SS1 while Katsuta was happy to be cautious with his sole weekend goal “just to try to survive”.
Thierry Neuville is sixth overall, 16.7s behind team-mate Tänak despite running just one car ahead on the road.
“No issues but I just couldn’t really attack, I didn’t feel the precision you need in there,” he explained. “I didn’t feel to push more.”
Portugal winner Elfyn Evans was another to struggle for the ultimate feeling, feeling he was “not really that smooth” with his SS1 driving. The Toyota driver is seventh, 0.6s behind Neuville.
Gus Greensmith is eighth alongside stand-in co-driver Stuart Loudon, but is already 28.6s adrift of the lead.
He survived a slight scare when the two right-hand-side wheels of his Fiesta WRC got hooked into a ditch for a few meters on the exit of a tightening left-hand bend.
Photo: M-Sport World Rally Team
“I just couldn’t trust my notes in there, was struggling quite a lot and making mistakes,” he said.
Pierre-Louis Loubet is ninth in his 2C Competition Hyundai, 1.5s adrift of Greensmith as he looks to rebuild his confidence after a barren run of results.
Mads Østberg completes the overall top 10 as the fastest WRC2 runner on SS1. The reigning champion has an early 6.8s lead over Adrien Fourmaux despite having the “feeling it was really slow.”
Andreas Mikkelsen is third in WRC2 on his return after missing Portugal due to contracting COVID-19, and was 11s slower than Østberg.
SS1 times
1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai) 13m08.3s
2 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota) +1.6s
3 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota) +9.6s
4 Dani Sordo/Borja Rozada (Hyundai) +10.4s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota) +12.1s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +16.7s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +17.3s
8 Gus Greensmith/Stuart Loudon (M-Sport Ford) +28.6s
9 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Florian Haut-Labourdette (Hyundai) +30.1s
10 Mads Ostberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroën) +37.7s
