Sébastien Ogier against Elfyn Evans, Toyota against Hyundai. The games for the WRC 2021 world titles will open tomorrow, meanwhile the Shakedown of the Rally of Spain took place today on the 4.31 kilometer Coll de la Teixeta course, the penultimate event of the season.
Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans immediately made it clear that they didn’t want to concede anything to each other. The 7-time world champion achieved the best time of the race in 2’33 “6 in the third of his three attempts, just 2 tenths ahead of his teammate and rival for the title.
This could be a fight that will continue until the end of the weekend, while behind them is the first of the three chasing Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC Plus, that of Thierry Neuville.
The Belgian also achieved his best time in the third lap (of the 4 played), being 4 tenths slower than Ogier and 2 compared to Evans. Behind him, in turn 2 tenths off, is Daniel Sordo.
The Spaniard, who will retire at the end of the 2022 season, preceded his other teammate, Ott Tanak, by 2 tenths. The Estonian was able to sign his reference time in the fourth lap, doing better than Kalle Rovanpera – on the third official Toyota Yaris WRC – by 4 tenths.
The improvements made by the two M-Sport crews are not bad. We are talking about Adrien Fourmaux sailed by Alex Coria and Gus Greensmith sailed by Chris Patterson. The British team did not carry out any tests for this event, so the Shakedown proved invaluable in preparing the Fiesta set-up.
Fourmaux and Greensmith, respectively seventh and eighth, are just 1 tenth behind each other and 1 “3 from Ogier. Takamoto Katsuta did not go beyond the ninth time, 1 tenth from the two Ford Fiesta WRCs, while Nil Solans, making his debut behind the wheel of a WRC Plus car (a Hyundai i20 Coupé WRC from the 2C Competition team) he completed the Top 10.
11th time for Oliver Solberg with the second Hyundai i20 WRC of the 2C Competition team, last WRC before Rally2. This ranking is commanded by Nikolay Gryazin at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo ahead of Eric Camilli (Citroen C3 Rally2) and Teemu Suninen, already excellent at the wheel of the new Hyundai i20 N Rally2.