The third race weekend of the 2024 WRC will officially start tomorrow with the first of the 19 special stages of the Safari Rally, the first event outside Europe for the top rally category. This morning, however, the Shakedown was held, a test stage to make the final adjustments to the cars before the start of the event.
On the 5.40 kilometer track called Loldia, Kalle Rovanpera and Thierry Neuville achieved the best time. Both made 3 passes in qualifying, with the two-time reigning world champion setting his 3'32″1 on the second lap. Neuville, however, achieved it on the third, improving by 2 tenths compared to the previous pass.
The Toyota driver will be looking for redemption after his bitter retirement at the Swedish Rally which took place last month, while the world championship leader will try to pull ahead of Elfyn Evans, the first of his opponents and today the author of the fourth fastest time, trailing by 1 second flat.
The second Hyundai i20 N Rally1 after that of the Belgian, the number 4 of Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm, squeezed in between Rovanpera, Neuville and Evans. The Finnish crew is fresh from a great victory in Sweden, a success they had lacked for almost 7 years (they won at the 2017 Rally Finland when they were still Toyota's third crew).
The Top 5 is completed by Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja. The 2019 world champions did 4 Shakedown laps, signing their best at the last and 1.6 seconds behind the reference time of the test stage.
The first Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid is that of Adrien Fourmaux, sixth, ahead of the third Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Takamoto Katsuta. The Japanese, after the good performances offered in the past, will try to repeat himself, while Forumaux seeks confirmation after a good start to the season, which even sees him in third place in the Drivers' World Championship.
Gregoire Munster will try to build his confidence with the car and the route test after test. For him it will be the first time at the Safari at the wheel of a Rally1 in one of the most difficult and insidious events of the entire World Championship.
As for WRC2, the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 immediately came out on top with Gus Greensmith quicker than Oliver Solberg and Kajetan Kajetanowicz.
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