Rovanperä dominates Rally Finland Shakedown

Toyota's Finns shine at home on Rally Finland shakedown. Large leader in the world championship, Kalle Rovanperä set the best time in 1'56″1 in the 4,48 km shakedown organized around Rannankylä. The young prodigy, winner of 5 of the 7 rounds WRC this season, beat his compatriot and TGR teammate Esapekka Lappi by half a second. Ott Tänak (Hyundai) complète le trio de tête en pointant à 9 dixièmes de Rovanperä. « It is of course nice to participate in my rally At my house, smiled the Finn. The feeling with the car is good and I don't feel any pressure. There's more excitement to see all these people supporting us. Let's hope it's a good weekend.« 

Shakedown finishes with our Finns fastest! ⏱️

1⃣ 🇫🇮 @KalleRovanpera 1m56.1s
2⃣ 🇫🇮 @EsapekkaLappi + 0.5s
3 Tanak +0.9s
4⃣ 🇯🇵 @TakamotoKatsuta + 1.3s
5⃣ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @ElfynEvans + 1.6s
6 Solberg +1.7s#ToyotaGAZOORacing #GRYaris #WRC #RallyFinland 🇫🇮 pic.twitter.com/k4ymKDqqYO

— TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT (@TGR_WRC) August 4

La Yaris semble en tout cas très à l’aise sur les routes du Rallye de Finlande. Les quatre japonaises engagées ont terminé dans le top 5 du shakedown. Takamoto Katsuta (4e à 1″3) et Elfy Evans (5e à 1″6) ont pris leurs marques. En revanche, les équipages M-Sport Ford comptent déjà un léger train de retard. Le plus rapide pilote au volant de la Puma est Craig Breen (7th at 2″0 from Rovanperä). He is ahead of Pierre-Louis Loubet (8th at 2″4) and the Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai, 9th at 2″4). For his first shakedown in Rally1, Finnish Jari Huttunen (M-Sport Ford) brings up the rear (10th at 3″1). The first special stage of the Rally Finland is organized this evening, from 18 p.m.