Ott Tänak set the shakedown pace from Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville on the World Rally Championship’s very first visit to Rally Latvia.
The 2.2-mile Cimdenieki shakedown test was a lightning-fast awakening to what is a brand-new event for most of the drivers, and championship leader Neuville was caught out from the get-go.
Misled by missing anti-cut poles, the Belgian arrived too hot into a left-right sequence and dipped his Hyundai off into the grass, narrowly avoiding the trees on the inside.
“We found where the limit is, so now we know!” he said. As first driver on the road, with several stages not repeated, Neuville isn’t expecting to have it easy when the rally gets underway.
“It’s going to be tough for us, that’s for sure,” he added. “We really need to be careful – in these conditions the grip is on and off, so it won’t be easy.”
Stopping the clocks 0.3 seconds up on his team-mate on their respective best runs, Tänak is seen by many as a favorite for victory in Latvia given his prowess on roads similar to these.
“[The] characteristic [of the stages] is similar,” he said, “how it will work out we need to find out.”
Takamoto Katsuta was the fastest Toyota on shakedown, posting the third-quickest time just 0.1s shy of Neuville’s effort. The Japanese driver predicted “many dramas could happen” with drivers using brand-new pacenotes this weekend.
Trying the hybrid version of the Ford Puma Rally1 for the first time, home hero Mārtiņš Sesks put in a late run to wind up fourth fastest – 0.7s off the pace.
Two tenths further back, championship contender Elfyn Evans was fifth, and like his title rival Neuville was frustrated by the absence of some anti-cut poles which had been there during recce.
“[There’s] a lot missing already in shakedown, not sure that bodes well for the rally but let’s see,” Evans said.
He beat his two world champion team-mates, Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier, by 0.2s as the Toyota pair set an identical best time of 1m34.7s.
Of the two, Rovanperä appears best placed for victory given his previous experience in Latvia, but he’s not convinced that’ll necessarily help him.
“It has been eight years since I was here last time so I don’t remember anything to be honest, but for sure it’s nice to be back,” he said. “It feels like going back to a familiar or home event so that’s cool.”
Ogier meanwhile is building himself back up to speed after being forced out of last month’s Rally Poland.
“I’m OK,” Ogier confirmed, “back to normal but very fast so we have to get back up to speed after missing the last fast-rally of the season. Obviously here the confidence will be important because it’s extremely fast.”
Esapekka Lappi was eighth fastest for Hyundai on his first WRC event since March’s Safari Rally Kenya, but his mood was a sharp contrast to his perhaps lowly shakedown position.
“It’s cool, very cool at such an event like this where it’s very fast and flat so there shouldn’t be any ruts – rally should be like this always!” Lappi beamed. “Let’s try to enjoy, have some nice stage-end comments and see where we end up.”
Almost three seconds down on Lappi, Grégoire Munster was ninth but comfortably clear of M-Sport team-mate Adrien Fourmaux who, surprisingly, was outpaced by the leading Rally2 runners.
But gleaning a true read of everyone’s pace was complicated by the fact drivers were permitted to try the virtual chicane system, which debuts on a WRC event at next month’s Rally Finland. Both factory Puma drivers were also not too pleased by the missing anti-cut poles; Munster accused spectators of removing them.
“The thing here is you really need to be careful not to touch the poles, so it’s not such a natural flow,” he added.
Oliver Solberg was the fastest WRC2 driver through shakedown from an impressive Fabrizio Zaldivar, but is expected to engage in another big battle with Sami Pajari once the rally begins. Pajari’s pace was masked by the fact he elected to slow and try out the virtual chicane on shakedown.
“The car is feeling really nice, I hope I can also enjoy the stages,” said the confident-sounding Finn. “I think everything should be really good.”
Solberg added: “It’s great to be here, it’s my second home rally so it’s a nice feeling to come back. I’ll give everything I have to try and win this weekend – I need it so we’ll give it everything.”
