Driving a Citroen DS3 WRC, the French ace set a benchmark time of 1m35.7s through the 3.19-kilometre Ruuhimaki practice stage this morning.“It’s important I score some points, that’s the main thing here,” said the seven-time world champion. “Whether this [time in shakedown] is a sign of things to come I do not know.”
Loeb’s Citroen team-mate Sebastien Ogier was second quickest with a time of 1m36.3s. Jari-Matti Latvala, the winner in Finland in 2010, was the leading Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver in third overall with a time of 1m36.6s.
Latvala and fellow factory Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen, who was eighth quickest, are among the favourites to win the gravel event this week. Despite being outpaced by the rival Citroen squad, Ford team boss Malcolm Wilson said the results of shakedown wouldn’t determine the outcome of the rally.
“We’re less than a second off Sebastien so that’s okay,” said Wilson. “Our drivers are really happy with the set-up they’ve got on their cars and didn’t need to do more runs or try and set faster times.”
Ex-Formula One world champion Kimi Räikkönen, who is starting his third Rally Finland, was seventh quickest in his ICE 1 Racing Citroen. The Finn completed six runs in shakedown and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom was satisfied with their performance. “Everything was okay, no problems and we had a good feeling,” he said.
Kris Meeke was 11th fastest in his MINI John Cooper Works WRC. After the shakedown his mechanics had to replace a broken windscreen, which a team representative confirmed had not hampered the Northern Irish ace’s progress.
Priority drivers are required to complete a minimum four runs of shakedown. Russian Evgeny Novikov, who missed out on a pre-event test, completed nine runs to fine-tune the set-up of his M-Sport Stobart-entered Fiesta. He was sixth quickest.
Norwegian Eyvind Brynildsen was the fastest Super 2000 World Rally Championship runner in his PS Engineering Skoda Fabia. Ukrainian driver Oleksandr Saliuk set the Production Car World Rally Championship pace at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Lancer.
Here are the top 10 times from the Shakedown session:
1. LOEB. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:35.7
2. OGIER. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:36.3
3. LATVALA. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:36.6
4. P. SOLBERG. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:36.8
5. OSTBERG. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:36.9
6. NOVIKOV. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.0
7. RÄIKKÖNEN. Citroen DS3 WRC. 1:37.1
8. HIRVONEN. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.4
9. WILSON. Ford Fiesta RS WRC. 1:37.4
=10. SORDO. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 1.37.6
=10. MEEKE. MINI John Cooper Works WRC. 1.37.6
Source: WRC
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